Tommy Fleetwood insisted he "loved every minute" as he conquered difficult conditions at The Renaissance Club to card a 69 and put himself right in contention for a third Rolex Series title at the 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open.
Day three in North Berwick saw rain from start to finish to make things tricky for the field, with the wind also getting up later in the day.
The lead moved backwards to nine under and after five birdies and two bogeys left Fleetwood just two shots away, the 2017 HNA Open de France and and 2019 Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player champion was keeping everything in perspective.
"I loved every minute of it. It's golf, isn't it? Somebody's got to enjoy it," he said.
"Let's face it, the money we play for these days, a day like that doesn't do any harm does it?
"It's fine, I'd play in it every day if this is what we're doing so no problems."
The Englishman birdied the par five third and seventh while also picking up a shot on the gettable fifth but he bookended that run with dropped shots on the second and eighth.
A three putt on the par five tenth and missed putt on the par three 12th after a beautiful tee shot represented missed opportunities and it looked like he may be made to pay after a bogey on the 13th.
But another sensational tee shot into the short 14th brought a birdie and a wonderful approach to 15 feet on the last left him well in contention.
"That one felt really, really good to finish the day, shoot two under out there," he said of his closing birdie.
"I just felt like I won today, like the battle against the golf course after that. It was a nice way to finish.
"It was pretty relentless I think. Normally you get maybe a downpour, normally when it's like this, you can't play.
"The fact that you're out there all day, literally it didn't stop, like the rain didn't stop for half a second and just got worse and progressively worse and windy throughout day. It was pretty tough towards the end.
"The golf shots I was hitting, you have to give yourself a pat on the back sometimes and I'm really, really happy with how I hit the shots coming in."
Fellow Englishman and Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter was also at seven under after a 73, and he too was relishing the challenge that autumn presents north of Hadrian's Wall.
"It tests everything, that you have," he 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 Scottish Open for a lot of money.
"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 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."
