Richard Mansell will take a four-shot lead into the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship after firing a five-under-par 67 at Carnoustie.
Mansell, who led by two overnight, has a cushion over his fellow Englishman Daniel Gavins, Sweden’s Alex Noren and New Zealander Ryan Fox.
Mansell produced heroics in terrible weather on Friday at the Old Course, St Andrews, and shone again on a bright but breezy day, just half an hour up the road, posting six birdies and one bogey to reach 15 under.
Noren, playing his third round at the Old Course, spent much of the day alongside Mansell at the summit but signed for a 69 after five birdies and two bogeys.
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Many of the murmuring Aviva Stadium crowd left early or headed to the bar. Irish expectations have changed
Gavins and Fox both produced strong finishes to their rounds at Kingsbarns Golf Links to get into the mix while Rory McIlroy has a huge task on his hands, eight shots back after his 66 at the Home of Golf.
Robert MacIntyre, hoping to be the first Scottish winner of the three-venue event since Colin Montgomerie in 2005, is on the same seven-under mark as McIlroy.
Mansell, who has three top-five finishes this year as he chases a first DP World Tour win, said: “I played really, really good. We had one bogey on nine. I hit a good shot in and, again, was just really in control of my golf ball. I’ve putted good.
“I did a lot of good work. Me and my coach, Mike Kanski, he’s helped massively. He was here at the start of the week. And I feel really in control of my golf game right now.
“I’ve been in contention a lot this year and had chances on Sundays. Every time, they say in golf, that you don’t lose, you learn. That’s what I feel like I’ve done really well this year.
“Tomorrow there’s a lot of golf. It’s links golf, anything can happen. It’s St Andrews. People can shoot 60. I’m just really focused on myself right now. I’m going to try and shoot a good score and see where it puts me. And just not worry about anyone else.”
McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington are the best placed of the Irish, eight shots off Mansell on seven under. Harrington was one of the few players to suffer little damage on Friday with a round of 71 and he backed it up with a 69 on Saturday.
Shane Lowry is much further back on +2, his round of 69 a much-improved effort on Friday’s 79. Jonathan Caldwell’s third round 74 leaves him on seven over for the tournament.
Scores from the DP World Tour Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Saturday
-15 Richard Mansell (England) 66 68 67
-11 Ryan Fox (New Zealand) 66 74 65 Daniel Gavins (England) 65 73 67 Alex Noren (Sweden) 67 69 69
-10 Niklas Norgaard Moller (Denmark) 63 74 69 Antoine Rozner (France) 63 74 69
-9 Callum Shinkwin (England) 68 71 68
-8 Christiaan Burke (South Africa) 66 77 65 Rasmus Hojgaard (Denmark) 67 74 67 Tapio Pulkkanen (Finland) 66 73 69
-7 Oliver Bekker (South Africa) 66 74 69 Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Spain) 68 73 68 Padraig Harrington (Republic of Ireland) 69 71 69 Billy Horschel (USA) 71 71 67 Robert MacIntyre (Scotland) 68 70 71 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 68 75 66 Matthew Southgate (England) 67 73 69 Connor Syme (Scotland) 68 76 65
-6 Tyrrell Hatton (England) 68 76 66 Maximilian Kieffer (Germany) 66 74 70 Hurly Long (Germany) 70 71 69 Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) 72 73 65 Peter Uihlein (USA) 65 77 68 Dale Whitnell (England) 66 77 67
-5 Alejandro Cañizares (Spain) 67 74 70 Alex Fitzpatrick (England) 73 69 69 Matthew Fitzpatrick (England) 71 71 69 Grant Forrest (Scotland) 70 74 67 Danie Van Tonder (South Africa) 70 73 68
-4 Frederic Lacroix (France) 62 78 72 David Micheluzzi (Australia) 69 73 70 Eddie Pepperell (England) 68 74 70 Thomas Pieters (Belgium) 65 83 64 Laird Shepherd (England) 67 74 71
-3 Adri Arnaus (Spain) 67 80 66 Julien Brun (France) 66 73 74 Louis De Jager (South Africa) 68 75 70 Stephen Gallacher (Scotland) 69 76 68 Joakim Lagergren (Sweden) 70 75 68 Romain Langasque (France) 61 80 72 David Law (Scotland) 68 78 67 Adrian Meronk (Poland) 71 70 72 Marcel Schneider (Germany) 71 74 68 Marcel Siem (Germany) 66 74 73 Sebastian Soderberg (Sweden) 70 75 68 Sami Valimaki (Finland) 70 73 70
-2 Maverick Antcliff (Australia) 68 74 72 George Coetzee (South Africa) 67 75 72 Tommy Fleetwood (England) 70 72 72 Benjamin Hebert (France) 68 76 70 Matthew Jordan (England) 67 76 71 Francesco Molinari (Italy) 68 73 73 Thorbjørn Olesen (Denmark) 69 76 69
-1 Jaco Ahlers (South Africa) 67 78 70 Richard Bland (England) 70 78 67 Jorge Campillo (Spain) 70 79 66 Nacho Elvira (Spain) 64 76 75 Daan Huizing (Netherlands) 68 74 73 Casey Jarvis (South Africa) 67 76 72 Victor Perez (France) 69 74 72 Richie Ramsay (Scotland) 70 79 66 Richard Sterne (South Africa) 69 72 74 Johannes Veerman (USA) 69 73 73
0 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand) 68 76 72 Ewen Ferguson (Scotland) 67 77 72 Nicolai Hojgaard (Denmark) 71 75 70 Craig Howie (South Africa) 72 74 70 Søren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 70 79 67 Francesco Laporta (Italy) 69 79 68 Thriston Lawrence (South Africa) 67 80 69 Wilco Nienaber (South Africa) 71 76 69 Yannik Paul (Germany) 68 81 67 Matt Wallace (England) 72 74 70 Oliver Wilson (England) 70 79 67
1 Aaron Cockerill (Canada) 65 81 71 Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 70 76 71 Daniel Gale (Australia) 70 73 74 Ricardo Gouveia (Portugal) 70 77 70 Julien Guerrier (France) 70 77 70 Chase Hanna (USA) 68 78 71 Guido Migliozzi (Italy) 66 76 75 Lukas Nemecz (Austria) 68 76 73 Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 66 76 75 Andrea Pavan (Italy) 70 73 74 Justin Walters (South Africa) 71 77 69 Hennie du Plessis (South Africa) 69 77 71
2 Laurie Canter (England) 71 74 73 John Catlin (USA) 72 77 69 Louis Dobbelaar (Australia) 70 79 69 Jamie Donaldson (Wales) 71 75 72 Branden Grace (South Africa) 70 74 74 Joachim B Hansen (Denmark) 71 72 75 Rikard Karlberg (Sweden) 68 78 72 Hugo Leon (Chile) 71 75 72 Zander Lombard (South Africa) 72 77 69 Shane Lowry (Republic of Ireland) 70 79 69 James Morrison (England) 66 75 77 Aaron Pike (Australia) 73 76 69 Danny Willett (England) 72 76 70 Andrew Wilson (England) 67 76 75
3 Sam Bairstow (England) 71 76 72 Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark) 70 79 70 Kristoffer Broberg (Sweden) 64 80 75 Calum Hill (Scotland) 71 77 71 Pablo Larrazábal (Spain) 75 74 70 Jediah Morgan (Australia) 71 76 72 Blake Windred (Australia) 70 77 72
4 Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 69 80 71 Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spain) 74 75 71 Marcus Helligkilde (Denmark) 74 76 70 Jazz Janewattananond (Thailand) 70 76 74 Espen Kofstad (Norway) 72 75 73 Tom Lewis (England) 70 76 74 Shaun Norris (South Africa) 69 78 73 Trent Phillips (USA) 69 79 72 Santiago Tarrio ben (Spain) 68 78 74 Marc Warren (Scotland) 74 74 72 Jordan Zunic (Australia) 71 76 73
5 Marcus Armitage (England) 74 77 70 Zheng-Kai Bai (China PR) 73 78 70 Nathan Barbieri (Australia) 69 77 75 Ross Fisher (England) 70 77 74 Robert Rock (England) 74 77 70 Kalle Samooja (Finland) 69 79 73
6 Rafa Cabrera Bello (Spain) 70 82 70 Talor Gooch (USA) 71 75 76 David Horsey (England) 66 81 75
7 Jonathan Caldwell (Northern Ireland) 68 81 74 Joost Luiten (Netherlands) 70 79 74 Zach Murray (Australia) 71 80 72 Matthieu Pavon (France) 71 79 73 Paul Peterson (USA) 67 84 72 Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 73 78 72 Shubhankar Sharma (India) 74 77 72 Brandon Stone (South Africa) 71 79 73 Tristen Strydom (South Africa) 69 80 74 Jeff Winther (Denmark) 70 78 75
8 Darren Fichardt (South Africa) 71 74 79 Renato Paratore (Italy) 70 84 70
9 Steven Brown (England) 71 82 72 Sean Crocker (USA) 68 81 76 Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (Germany) 67 81 77 Scott Jamieson (Scotland) 72 81 72 Neil Schietekat (South Africa) 77 75 73
10 Oliver Fisher (England) 71 82 73 Oliver Jorgensen (Denmark) 72 82 72 Sean O’Hair (USA) 71 81 74
11 Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 70 81 76 Josh Armstrong (Australia) 69 85 73 Martin Vorster (South Africa) 73 83 71
12 Austin Bautista (Australia) 72 81 75 Russell Chrystie (England) 73 84 71 Scott Hend (Australia) 75 82 71 Takumi Kanaya (Japan) 71 79 78 Stephen Lewton (England) 74 81 73 Adrian Otaegui (Spain) 69 80 79 Jovan Rebula (South Africa) 77 78 73 Jack Singh Brar (England) 75 79 74
13 Chris Paisley (England) 76 79 74
16 Alexander Knappe (Germany) 72 88 72 Darius Van Driel (Netherlands) 71 79 Albert Venter (South Africa) 83 77 72
