Tied for fourth going into the final round would usually have a player eyeing the tournament victory, but such was the low scoring from the final group on day three of the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge that he knows victory is a longshot and a high finish will be the priority.
“I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing this week, and and that’s trying to find the fairways and give myself as many chances for birdies as possible,” he said after signing for a three-under 68 that lifted him five places on the leaderboard.
“I wouldn’t say I’m in contention the way the guys are going in the final groups, but yeah look, it’s a good chance for a good score tomorrow and to get a good finish and a few points on the board.”
Four birdies and just the one bogey on a day where the wind gusted hard was a very good return, but he somehow lost ground to the overall leader as former Irish Challenge winner Brandon Robinson Thompson pulled clear with a sublime nine-under 69.
“Yeah, it doesn’t seem to be affecting the guys,” he said ruefully when asked about the testing conditions, “obviously, the scores are good, but it is tough. It’s just the gusts that are really tough, you know, if it was consistent, it would be a lot easier.
“But there, there a lot of gusts, which makes it very, very difficult to pick up and get the yardages right and there were some tough pins today before the winds.”
The Clandeboye man will be eight off the lead at the start of the final round, but just four off second place, but he doesn’t have a target number in mind and will take a ‘wait and see’ approach with course set up and weather dictating.
“I’ll just go out there and see what happens,” he said. “It all depends on the set up of the course and the way the wind’s blowing and gusting,” he said. “And like I say, just try and give myself as many chances for birdies as possible and hopefully I can knock them in.”