Australia's Cameron Smith is three shots behind Masters leader Scottie Scheffler ahead of final round

Australia's Cameron Smith will go into the final round of the Masters within striking distance of his first major title, trailing leader Scottie Scheffler by three shots at Augusta National.

The final pairing will see the two form golfers of the PGA Tour go head-to-head on the famous course, with Smith aiming to be the first since Adam Scott in 2013 to earn the right to wear the green jacket.  

Smith will start the final day at six under, with Scheffler leading at nine under and South Korea's Sungjae Im in third at four under.

A winner coming from outside that trio seems unlikely at this point. 

For the second day running, the winds howled around Augusta National, causing havoc for players.

By round's end, only seven players in the field remained under par for the tournament.

One of them was Smith, who was coming off a win in The Players Championship last month. He gave himself a chance for an even bigger win, defying the conditions to shoot the best round of the day, a four-under 68.

He was the only player to break 70 in round three.

It could have been even better, as the Queenslander missed a number of birdie putts.

Starting the day at two under, six back of Scheffler, Smith birdied the second but gave it back on the third.

Smith reeled off birdies at the short sixth and the par-five eighth to move to four under, then added birdies at the 10th, 13th and 15th.

At that point, he was only three behind Scheffler. But a bogey on 16 took some of his momentum away.

On the last, Smith received some luck, hitting the trees down the left before bouncing back onto the edge of the fairway.

The Australian smashed his second shot 230 metres to the green and then some, flying it over the back to leave a difficult up and down. He got it done, to