Despite two bogeys in his last four holes Padraig Harrington will take a three shot lead into the final round of the SAS Championship as he bids for a ninth Champions Tour title.
Harrington carded a second round of 67 to climb to eleven-under-par and with David Toms, Shane Bertsch and Jerry Kelly sharing second place on eight-under.
The 53-year-old was in terrific form, rolling in four birdies in five holes on his front nine including three in a row from the 5th before beginning his back nine with two birdies in three holes. A slight stumble where he dropped shots on 15 and 18 either side of a birdie on 17 stopped him from potentially disappearing over the horizon but he is still in a commanding position.
“I’m pleased, yeah. It’s always disappointing to bogey the last, but a three-shot lead is a three-shot lead. You’d take that at the start of the week. You know, this is a great thing about golf, maybe it’s the worst thing about golf: Nobody gives you anything.
“I’ve got a three-shot lead and it means nothing. I’ve got to turn up tomorrow and probably play good golf. You just don’t get given tournaments. You don’t get to declare, hey, I’m three ahead, that means I win.
“I have to turn up tomorrow and play some good golf to keep this lead.
“It’s a tough golf course. It really is an intimidating golf course, especially for me. As I said, you just don’t want to be missing the fairways. There’s a lot of high numbers out there with the speed of the greens. Yeah, a three-shot lead could evaporate at any time tomorrow, so yeah, I’m going to have to go and play just as well as I have the first two days.”
Harrington has looked in great form through the first 36 holes but he admits he doesn’t feel entirely comfortable at Cary Golf Club but perhaps that has sharpened his focus.
“Yesterday it was really good. Like I kind of knew I couldn’t play as well as I played yesterday. Today I hit some of those good shots and I hit some ropey ones at times as well.
“I think when it comes to golf, when you get into contention, it’s more about managing what you’re doing than anything else. It’s hard to be free up, let’s say, when you’ve got a lead, especially on this course.
“I was happy that I managed myself well. I holed a few putts today. I shot 66 yesterday and I think I holed 36 feet of putts in total yesterday. I holed a 90-footer on the third today, so I blew that out of the water pretty quickly. So yeah, two different days.”
Darren Clarke carded a second round of 71 to move on to one-under-par.