Tommy Fleetwood was delighted to have fought his way back up the leaderboard as he once again gave himself a chance of taking the title at the Genesis Scottish Open.
The Englishman lost in a play-off to Aaron Rai at The Renaissance Club in 2020 and finished in a tie for fourth last year but did not look like he would be in contention this time around on Friday afternoon.
A double-bogey on the eighth in round two left him level par but since then he has made 12 birdies and a single bogey to get right in the mix at 11 under.
Eight of those birdies came in round three and with the weather expected to play its part on Sunday, Fleetwood is not giving up on a third Rolex Series title.
"Of course I'm excited about being somewhere near contention and having a chance tomorrow," he said.
"I'd like to not get too far away and see what the conditions bring. If it's rough, it's rough. If it's nice, that will do too. You have to play it no matter what.
"But I'm happy after the first sort of 26 holes of the tournament to be in this position, I'm very pleased with it."
Fleetwood started round three on the tenth having been six back at the start of the day but stormed through the field as he two-putted the tenth, holed from 11 feet on the 11th, made a 36-footer on the 14th and put his approach to a foot on the next.
His only dropped shot of the day came on the 17th but he birdied the 18th from 11 feet, two-putted the third, left himself nine feet on the seventh and put his tee-shot to five feet on the ninth in a 63.
"I got off to a fast start which is important if you're going to have a low one but just to gain some momentum on a Saturday," he said. "I played well all day and then sort of slowed down a little bit.
"But those last three holes, which are tough holes, really - seven, eight, nine - it was good to get on the right side of those three holes and finish strong.
"I drove it well, put it in the fairway a lot. The times I was out of position off the tee it was difficult to score.
"I thought the pins were trickier today, which I still think a lot of them are, but that just adds to the importance of hitting the fairway and giving yourself a chance with the irons.
"I holed a couple of nice putts. Overall just go out there and play and see what score you get and just happened to get a low one."
