Ryan Fox has missed a chance for a third victory of the year after a wayward front nine saw him slip out of contention at the Mallorca Golf Open overnight.

Starting as co-leader, the world number 25 shot a three-over 74 to finish two shots back from Germany's Yannik Paul who claimed his maiden win on the DP World Cup in eventful style.

Fox's day went awry from the first hole where he had a double bogey before dropping further shots at the third and the sixth holes. He responded with a birdie at the par four eighth before another bogey at the ninth derailed his run again.

The Kiwi got back to within a shot of the lead with back-to-back birdies to start the back nine but followed that up with bogeys at the 13th and 14th.

Fox finished the round with four birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey, a disappointing drop of form after recording just one bogey in the opening 54 holes of the tournament.

The top-five finish, his seventh of the season, sees him jump ahead of US Open winner Matthew Fitzpatrick into second on the DP World Tour standings behind world number two Rory McIlroy.

Overnight co-leader Paul had been in the driving seat on the back nine before a two-shot swing at the 15th handed his playing partner Marcus Armitage a two-shot lead with three holes to play.

But as Armitage dropped three shots over the next two holes, Paul saved par at the 17th to find himself tied as he made his way to the 18th.

The German then coolly slotted in a difficult 15-foot birdie try from the fringe at the last to deny Paul Waring and Nicolai von Dellingshausen a play-off.

Fox earned €94,526.96 ($NZ162,000) for the fourth placing taking him to €2.6m (NZ$4.5m) for the year with two events to play - the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa next month followed by the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.