Matteo Manassero and Alex Noren sat at the top of a congested leaderboard midway through the third round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
Favourable conditions allowed for some low scoring at Castle Stuart Golf Links and that allowed the field to close up with 23 players within four shots of the lead as the rain began to fall in Inverness.
Manassero and Noren were top of the pile at nine under but Danny Lee, Tyrrell Hatton, Andy Sullivan and Justin Walters were just a shot behind.
Hatton was the first player to make a big move as he made a birdie-eagle-birdie start to join Noren at the top of the leaderboard.
Manassero birdied the first two holes to join the group in second and Branden Grace soon found himself there as he drove the green on the third and rolled in a 25-foot putt for eagle.
Neither of the final duo could take advantage of the first but they both birdied the second before a Manassero eagle after a brilliant second shot into the sixth made him the first man to get to ten under this week.
A bogey followed on the next to move Noren back into a share of the lead but the Swede also bogeyed the seventh before he got back to the summit with a gain on the ninth to turn in 35.
Lee turned in the same score thanks to that birdie on the second while Hatton bogeyed the eighth but a gain on the ninth left him eight under after 13 holes.
Sulllivan had eagles on the third and sixth with a birdie on the second but also two dropped shots on the fifth and seventh. He made a second birdie of the day on the 11th to sit a shot off the lead.
A late birdie burst saw Walters surge through the field with one to play as three gains in four holes from the 13th added to earlier red numbers on the first, fourth and sixth.
Romain Wattel was at seven under and he had set the clubhouse target with a low round of the week 65 containing an eagle and five birdies.
Richard Bland, Alejandro Cañizares and Eddie Pepperell were also two off the lead with Grace a further shot back after a double-bogey on the tenth.
Nicolas Colsaerts, Padraig Harrington and Ricardo Gouveia were also at six under.
