The tall Texan has the cushy comfort of a three-shot lead entering tomorrow's last round when he looks odds on to become just the 13th player in Nationwide Tour history to win his maiden tour outing.
Gates, who has shared or had sole ownership of the lead after every round, posted a bold and confident four-under-par 68 in today's third round to give himself plenty of breathing space when he bids to go all the way and collect the winner's cheque for $US108,000.
That left him on 16-under 200 for the championship, ahead of Andrew Dodt, who posted 70 to be at 203, with a further two strokes back to another Australian Michael Curtain, 68.
Former PGA Tour member Mark Hensby, of Melbourne, thrust himself into the mix with a flawless 66, the day's best score, as he improved from a tie for 38th to fourth equal on 207 alongside compatriot Matthew Griffin, 70, and American kevin Chappell, 71.
Phil Tataurangi, the leading New Zealander, shelled two shots late in his round to sign for a 71, which left him sharing seventh place on 208 with Americans Kelly Grunewald, 69, Tag Ridings, 69, and Jamie Lovemark, 69.
Gates, 24 and with one season on the low key Canadian Tour behind him, had already imposed himself on the $US600,000 championship with opening rounds of 65 and 67 and interest today centred on how long he could keep his nose in front.
He was more than up to the challenge as a brisk southwesterly wind fanned the course, responding to the first of two bogeys at the par-four 11th by peeling off four successive birdies to leave his rivals gasping for air.
He didn't have time to amend amends for the only other slip up, after bogeying the last when failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
"Eighteen was playing extremely difficult straight into the teeth of the wind and it was disappointing to bogey that but that will give me a little fire for the morning," he said.
Aside from those two dropped shots, Gates barely put a foot wrong, with his run of four successive birdies on the back nine coming courtesy of spookily accurate iron play.
He is comfortable having a target on his back tomorrow, when he will fall back on a great golfing cliche, and take it one shot at a time.
"It's just golf. It is a different scenario, a different situation but at the end of the day there are 18 holes to play and I need to go out and stay aggressive and making few mistakes as possible.
"I can't worry about anyone else. Tomorrow I will play the best I can and whatever happens happens.
"So far I am doing a pretty good job of it," said Gates, whose work with the short stick has helped as he is averaging 28.3 putts each day through three rounds.
Tataurangi, a one-time PGA Tour winner in 2002, stumbled towards the finish, dropping one stroke at the thought provoking par-three 16th before shelling another at the par-five 17th when his tee shot veered left into a water hazard and his long par putt sat on the edge of the hole.
It was a tame end to a round of promise when he had been three-under after birdieing the short par-four 15th.
"I had been there or thereabouts all day and mental errors at 16 and 17 meant costly bogeys," Tataurangi said.
"Looking at it now they were costly, and it looks like Robert is running away with it." Spotting the leader ... shots with 18 holes to play meant Tataurangi does not consider a realistic goal to challenge the leaders tomorrow.
But who knows? "The course was quite easy yesterday and quite tricky today. The difference was only 10mph of wind.
"For me to get into contention I'll need to shoot a low number then I'll need some help from the leaders." The other New Zealanders to survive the second round failed to fire after early morning rain took a lot of the sting out of the 6610m course on the outskirts of Arrowtown although the afternoon winds saw the greens quicken in pace .
Left-hander Gareth Paddison was the best of them with a two-under 70 despite a double bogey at the 16th, to be 34th equal on 212.
He was one shot behind Josh Geary, 73, and two shy of David Smail, 71, and Brad Iles, 72, the latter pair sitting in a tie for 16th, the small matter of 10 shots behind Gates.
