Jason McCreadie moves into new territory in tomorrow's final round of the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship as leader of the field.
Playing over the PGA Centenary course, the Largs-based pro who represents Buchanan Castle shot a two-under 71 for a 213 aggregate, outplaying his partner, overnight leader, Craig Lee, by five shots. McCreadie has a two-stroke cushion over Eddie Thomson, who happens to be a member of Largs Golf Club.
McCreadie had erased the two-shot deficit by the ninth, but he reckoned the long 16th hole was the key to his round.
"While I was birdieing it, Craig bogeyed and suddenly I had a two-shot lead. We both parred the last two. I do know what it feels like to be leading a 72-hole championship (he won the Northern Open in 2004 and '06), so it won't be too strange tomorrow."
Thomson, who gave up a postman's last November ("for good, I hope"), certainly delivered the goods in round 3. "I did well to throw off the disappointment of a double bogey at the par-five second, but, in truth, I didn't play very well. So having a level 73 wasn't all that bad."
Thomson conceded that he'd never been in such a challenging position in any previous national championship - but the idea of teeing off in the final pairing didn't faze him.
"It's what you work for; I don't feel any different from playing in the Challenge Tour or the tour school.
Announcing he was 'back in the saddle' after a brilliant 67, the low round of the championship, Chris Doak is again in position to win his fifth successive Scottish Order of Merit for this season. Having begun day three tied a distant 25th, the 30-year-old Greenock pro raced through the field to finish within touching distance of McCreadie.
"After two pretty poor rounds I just had to go for it. It was all or bust"
Doak got off to a great start, birdieing the first and chipping in from 25 yards for an eagle 3 at the second. A dropped shot at the third was followed by a monstrous putt of around 60 feet at the sixth for birdie No. 2.
Another gain at the 12th was cancelled out at the next, and his second eagle of the round came at the 518-yard 16th, courtesy of a drive and a 4-iron to three feet. After another birdie at the short 17th, Doak extricated himself twice from the long 18th's rough - on the right off the tee, and on the left from his next - and then fired a wedge to five feet and holed for the round's most improbable par.
David Orr is still very much in the frame after a level-par 73, expressing some degree of satisfaction in his putting, the one part of his game that was undermining his confidence in the earlier rounds. He share third place with Lee, three off the pace.
05 July, 2008