Faldo called for the Australian Open to be added to the list of majors after battling through winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour for a level-par 72 in the third round at Royal Adelaide.

It left him sharing second place with Greg Chalmers, one stroke behind Stuart Appleby.

"All the great players have played it, the have all come to Australia," said Faldo.

"They should just rubber stamp it and get it done with. I think they should have made this championship a major 30 years ago. Maybe we should do it for the year 2000."

Stuart Appleby: Held his game together well

The demanding conditions meant that no player was under-par for 54 holes, with leader Appleby carding a 72 for a one-over total of 217.

Faldo began with three successive birdies but dropped shots at the next two holes and admitted: "It was just a scrambling day, trying to hit the ball as solid as possible and in the right place. It's like playing 30 holes on a day like this."

Appleby completed 10 holes in par figures before strengthening his position with back-to-back birdies at the next two.

He also picked up a shot at 17 but had three bogeys in the last six holes, including one at the last where he bunkered his second shot.

"The Australian Golf Union has tried to beat us up and it's a matter of who finishes losing the least blood," said Appleby.

"On the downwind holes, it is a bit like handcuffing Mike Tyson and getting in as many punches as you can for 10 seconds before you get out of his way."

Five-time champion Greg Norman also returned a 72, but lies seven strokes off the pace.

Collated totals after three rounds (Australian unless stated):

217 Stuart Appleby 69-76-72
218 Nick Faldo (Eng) 77-69-72, Greg Chalmers 71-73-74
219 Rodney Pampling 71-71-77, Peter Senior 70-73-76
220 Rodger Davis 72-73-75, Robert Allenby 72-73-75
221 Nick O'Hern 77-74-70, Peter O'Malley 75-74-72, Stephen Scahill (NZ) 70-76-75
222 Steve Webster (Eng) 77-74-71, Raymond Russell (Sco) 74-76-71, Scott Gardiner 76-75-71, Matthew Ecob 77-74-71, Richard Green 73-76-73, Greg Turner (NZ) 75-73,74, David Smail (NZ) 74-74-74, Mark Allen 73-75-74, Wayne Riley 73-74-75

Selected others: