ITALY, 19 Sept 2015, (AFP) - The German carded a 65 to move alongside Sweden's Jens Fahrbring and Romain Wattel of France on 199 for the tournament at 17 under par.
"I started off well," said Kaymer. "But those last three holes I think I left a couple out there especially on 16 and 17, they were good putts they just didn't go in. Sixteen was a very very poor chip but that's okay, seven under par is a very good round.
"I've placed myself in a very good position for tomorrow."
Kaymer had started the day three shots behind Fahrbring and Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark.
Two shots off the lead after the third round are Bjerregaard, Italy's Fabrizio Zanotti and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger.
Francesco Molinari leads the Italian charge on 11 under, six off the pace.
South Korea's Y E Yang is eight under but he had the consolation of a hole in one on the 12th hole, the 42nd on the European Tour this season.
Leading scores from the Italian Open third round on Saturday at the par-72 Golf Club Milano (GBR & IRL unless stated):
199 - Jens Fahrbring (SWE) 67 64 68, Romain Wattel (FRA) 67 66 66, Martin Kaymer (GER) 68 66 65
201 - Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN) 66 65 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 66 67 68, Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 66 68 67
202 - David Lipsky (USA) 67 67 68, Jaco Van Zyl (RSA) 71 65 66, Rikard Karlberg (SWE) 67 67 68
203 - Mikael Lundberg (SWE) 68 68 67, Jason Scrivener (AUS) 68 68 67, Daniel Brooks 71 65 67, Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL) 63 70 70
204 - Kristoffer Broberg (SWE) 65 72 67, Danny Willett 68 67 69
205 - Jeev Milkha Singh (IND) 68 69 68, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 65 72 68, Ricardo Santos (POR) 69 68 68, Jerome Lando Casanova (FRA) 71 67 67, Peter Lawrie 68 67 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick 70 68 67
206 - Jason Barnes 69 68 69, Lorenzo Scalise (ITA) 71 66 69, Roope Kakko (FIN) 67 72 67, Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 68 69 69, Mikko Korhonen (FIN) 66 70 70, Tom Lewis 72 67 67