Harrington makes a move forward as Rock leads in Scotland
Pádraig Harrington moved to within six shots of the lead with a battling 69 on a day of horrendous weather in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.
The Ryder Cup skipper (49) was one of just 17 players to break par on a day of torrential rain and so leapt 31 places up the leaderboard to tied 22nd on three-under.
While he has a host of top players ahead of him, another sub-70 round in bad weather on Sunday could yet see him challenge for the title or at least clinch his first top-10 finish since the 2018 KLM Open, more than two years ago,
Incessant rain made life even tougher for the later starters with just two players in the last 14 groups breaking par - the Australian Wade Ormsby (40) and English Ryder Cup player Tommy Fleetwood (29), who posted respective rounds of 70 and 69.
Robert Rock (43) battled his way to a one-over 72 to lead by two shots from Ian Poulter, who shot 73, the Swede Marcus Kinhult, Ormsby and Fleetwood on nine-under as he seeks just his third European Tour win from 430 starts.
Fleetwood will be seeking his third Rolex Series victory after making the most of wet conditions and carding a brilliant round of 69 to move up the leaderboard and will tee it up in final group tomorrow alongside Rock and Ormsby.
“To be fair, there was a period early doors where it was fine,” Fleetwood said. “It was playable and I think as the rain got worse, obviously, you get wetter and the day gets a bit longer, but when we sort of got to the edge of the golf course and the wind picked up, the rain, this is the worst it's been all day.
“And 18, finishing with a birdie. I said on the fairway, again, stood over the ball and I was pretty prepared for any scenario after hitting that one. I could have duffed it or shanked it or done whatever and wouldn't have been too surprised.
“Actually where it went, it was the most surprising thing. The putt from two feet out looked like it was going in. That one felt really, really good to finish the day, shoot two under out there, I just felt like I won today, like the battle against the golf course after that. It was a nice way to finish.”
Spaniard Adri Arnaus, Frenchman Victor Dubuisson and Malaysia's Gavin Green shared the lowest rounds of the day with a trio of 67s to sit at five-under alongside England's Andy Sullivan, who recorded a 69.
Home favourite Robert MacIntyre carded a 68 to sit in a group of 12 players at four under including fellow Scotsmen Grant Forrest and Marc Warren, and Rolex Series champions Brandon Stone and Lee Westwood.
The overnight leader Lucas shot 79 to join Harrington in 22nd in three-under.
Course staff had to squeegee flooding greens throughout the latter part of the afternoon and Poulter was relieved to remain in contention.
“It tests everything, that you have, Poulter said. “You've got all shots from archives you haven't hit for a while. It's miserable. But we're playing golf. We're in a lucky position to be here playing this Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open for a lot of money. So a lot of guys have put a lot of hard work in to get us here. We're here. We're wet. So we just need to dry off and go again tomorrow.
“I'm going to say it was a massive mental challenge, and we needed all of the greenkeepers help to get us here. They were squeegeeing hard the last few holes to get us in to close of play today. It's not easy. That wasn't an easy test of golf.
“My thoughts are not about tomorrow. You know, sounds stupid, but I really lost count of what I was scoring out there around that back nine. I had no idea. I couldn't write numbers on the scoreboard. I couldn't keep my hands dry. I'm in contention. That's a good thing, right. So, I played three rounds. Rocky has obviously shot an incredible round of golf today, to shoot that in those conditions. We're in touching distance. That's all I can ask for.”
Kinhult said: “It was a bit of a roller coaster out there for me. Played well, actually, and then around 12, 13, we thought they might call it off, but they didn't. I'm glad we got to finish today, because it would have been tough to come out tomorrow morning, and I had a pretty good finish today. It was fine. I'm happy.
Ormsby added: “It just got tougher and tougher as we went around. I put the umbrella down after about four holes and thought I would just deal with it, but by about the 11th hole, it was brutal. And out by the coast there, it was getting a spot of wind, ran out of towels after about 14 holes so a grind coming in.
“Give yourself a chance with one round to go, big event, that's what we all play for. Give it a good crack tomorrow.”
Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland (Par 71)
204 R Rock (Eng) 65 67 72,
206 I Poulter (Eng) 67 66 73, M Kinhult (Swe) 66 69 71, W Ormsby (Aus) 66 70 70, T Fleetwood (Eng) 69 68 69,
208 A Sullivan (Eng) 67 72 69, G Green (Mas) 70 71 67, V Dubuisson (Fra) 73 68 67, A Arnaus (Esp) 75 66 67,
209 L Westwood (Eng) 62 71 76, K Samooja (Fin) 65 70 74, D Horsey (Eng) 70 67 72, G Forrest (Sco) 71 66 72, E Pepperell (Eng) 68 70 71, B Stone (RSA) 69 70 70, C Shinkwin (Eng) 69 70 70, M Warren (Sco) 70 69 70, A Rai (Eng) 70 69 70, B Hebert (Fra) 70 70 69, J Winther (Den) 71 69 69, R Macintyre (Sco) 74 67 68,
210 L Herbert (Aus) 66 65 79, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 66 76, S Jamieson (Sco) 64 73 73, A Bj?rk (Swe) 63 75 72, M Korhonen (Fin) 68 70 72, N Colsaerts (Bel) 68 70 72, M Southgate (Eng) 68 71 71, C Syme (Sco) 70 69 71, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 71 70 69,
211 J Luiten (Ned) 63 72 76, F Zanotti (Par) 69 67 75, R Hojgaard (Den) 68 70 73, G Higgo (RSA) 72 67 72, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 71 69 71, F Laporta (Ita) 71 70 70, S Crocker (USA) 73 68 70, J Wang (Kor) 73 68 70,
212 C Lee (Sco) 65 71 76, P Larraz?bal (Esp) 72 64 76, H Li (Chn) 68 70 74, V Perez (Fra) 69 69 74, E Ferguson (Sco) 69 70 73, M Lee (Aus) 66 74 72, J Smith (Eng) 70 70 72, J Suri (USA) 70 70 72,
213 S Sharma (Ind) 70 67 76, J Campillo (Esp) 71 67 75, D Howell (Eng) 72 67 74, J Morrison (Eng) 72 67 74, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 69 72 72, M Wallace (Eng) 70 71 72, E Molinari (Ita) 74 67 72,
214 M Antcliff (Aus) 69 70 75, M Pavon (Fra) 68 72 74, C Hill (Sco) 71 70 73, A Otaegui (Esp) 71 70 73, 215 S Valimaki (Fin) 68 69 78, M Kawamura (Jpn) 69 69 77, J Lagergren (Swe) 68 72 75, G Coetzee (RSA) 71 69 75,
216 B Wiesberger (Aut) 70 69 77,
217 A Wu (Chn) 70 70 77, T Detry (Bel) 71 69 77,
218 S Hend (Aus) 71 70 77,
219 C Wood (Eng) 69 71 79, **
