Leader (File)

Kaymer, who won the title in 2007 and finished second last year, moved on to a 15 under total of 201.

However, he will face tough opposition after Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, who shot 67, and England's Ian Poulter, who also went round in 67, are only one stroke behind. Sweden's Peter Hanson is fourth on 199 after a 70.

Kaymer had feared that his success rate at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club could be suffer as a lingering consequence of a freak go-karting accident in Scottsdale last summer. He was out of action for nearly four months, with three small broken bones in his foot, and they are held together by a metal plate which may have to stay in place throughout 2010.

"If I have the plate taken out I will need another two to two and a half weeks to recover," he said. "And I never really get a break for three weeks during the season. I don't want to miss tournaments in a Ryder Cup year. But I do seem to be able to play good golf with it still in place."

And it's worth putting with a bit of pain to play on a course he enjoys.

"There are certain shots where I still have to be careful when I play with the ball below my feet its hurts a bit," he said. "But I do like this course. I always seem to play well here because all the tee shots seem to suit my eye."

Kaymer had begun his third round two shots behind the halfway leader Rick Kulacz. The Australian, playing his first full European event since obtaining a card at qualifying, struggled though to hold on to his place.

He opened his third round with a bogey and could only shoot a one over 73 to fall four shots behind Kaymer, whose sixth birdie of the day completed from seven feet on the final green gave him the outright lead.

The field behind Kaymer is fairly cluttered with Spain's Alvaro Quiros, England's Chris Woods and Ireland's Shane Lowry just two shots behind.

The most experienced player on Thursday's halfway leaderboard, Spain's Sergio Garcia, appeared to drop out of contention after shooting a 74 to lie six shots back.

However, his fellow European Ryder Cup player Poulter certainly feels has a chance of preventing Kaymer producing his second win in the Arabian Desert.

"Before I came here, my one worry was that I was not sinking enough 20-25 foot putts," Poulter said. "But now I have had two or three of them go in so what was the problem there?"

Collated third round scores on Saturday in the 1.5 million euro Abu Dhabi Golf Championship:

201 - Martin Kaymer (GER) 67-67-67

202 - Ian Poulter (ENG) 65-70-67; Rory McIlroy (NIR) 66-69-67

203 - Peter Hanson (SWE) 66-67-70

204 - Alvaro Quiros (ESP) 66-70-68; Chris Wood (ENG) 70-64-70; Shane Lowry (IRE) 68-65-71

205 - Rick Kulacz (AUS) 69-63-73

206 - Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 69-66-71; Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 69-70-67; Jamie Donaldson (WAL) 70-69-67; Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 67-71-68; Rhys Davies (WAL) 66-68-72

207 - Sergio Garcia (ESP) 66-67-74; Anders Hansen (DEN) 69-70-68; Richard Green (AUS) 70-65-72; Hennie Otto (RSA) 70-67-70; Soren Hansen (DEN) 72-67-68; Ross McGowan (ENG) 69-71-67

208 - Francesco Molinari (ITA) 68-68-72; Paul Lawrie (SCO) 66-70-72; Thomas Aiken (RSA) 67-70-71; Camilo Villegas (COL) 71-68-69; Anthony Kim (USA) 70-70-68