Conor Purcell produced a stellar finish to keep a red-hot Joakim Lagergren in his sights and go into the final round just one stroke behind the Swede in the Black Desert NI Open presented by Tom McKibbin.
Three clear overnight, the Dubliner (27) found himself three shots behind Largergren after 11 holes when the 2014 Northern Ireland Open winner followed a four-under 30 on the front nine with an eagle-birdie start to his homeward journey.
Largergren (32) went on to shoot a nine-under 61 to lead on 15-under par but Purcell birdied the 12th, 13th and 16th before following an outrageous par at the 17th with a closing birdie to card a second successive 65 and go into the final day just a shot behind.
“It was a good day,” Purcell said. It’s always tricky enough. I’ve only been in this position once, obviously, and that was going into today.
“When you have a lead, you can probably get in your own head a little bit. But I did a great job before and during the round of staying within my own little bubble, and I really enjoyed it.
“Joakim played a hell of a round today. There’s nothing you can do about that, but I’m very pleased with how I handled the day.”
Purcell was especially pleased to make par at the 17th after shanking his second from the trees onto the 18th fairway from where he half-fluffed his third into a bunker before holing out for par.
“I got lucky actually,” Purcell said. “I hit it into trees on the left and I had a full swing. I just had to hit it really low and move about 30 yards right-to-left.
“I was trying so hard to keep it low, I actually hoseled it, and I flew all the trees and went over onto the 18th. We stepped out a yardage, and I half-flubbed it into a bunker where it just rolled out of its plug mark.
“There was loads of sand and I holed it for four, which was just funny because when we were walking up after I hit the shank out of the trees, I said to my caddie, I am about to make an outrageous four, so it was nice to back that up.
“It’s happened to me twice in two Irish events before, when I had two big numbers when I was doing really well.
“So I just knew that look, these things happen. It’s all part of the game. You just have to handle them.”
Largergren made an eagle and seven birdies in his 61 to give himself a chance of winning a second NI Open title, ten years after capturing his first.
But Purcell is ready to battle for a maiden win that would catapult him from 24th to fourth in the Challenge Tour Ranking and put himself in position to win one of 20 DP World Tour cards.
“I’ve gotten my head in a nice space where I can actually enjoy these days a bit more than tensing up,” he said. “So yeah, looking forward to the challenge.”
It looks like a two-horse race with France’s Robin Sciot-Siegrist five strokes behind Purcell in third after a 65 while Gary Hurley shot 69 to move up to tied 13th on four-under.
Meanwhile, Pádraig Harrington goes into the final round of The Senior Open six shots behind Korea’s KJ Choi at Carnoustie — the same deficit he had in 2007 when he beat Sergio Garcia in a playoff to win the first of his two Open Championship titles.
The Dubliner (52) carded a one-over 73 to slip to tied sixth with Stephen Ames on two-under as Choi’s 70 gave him a one-shot lead over Australia’s Richard Green on eight-under-par.
India’s Arjun Atwal is just two shots behind Choi, on six-under, with Paul Broadhurst on four-under and Angel Cabrera on three-under.
Darren Clarke is tied 13th on one-over after a 74 with Peter Lawrie 29th on six-over after a 73.