It was sell-out Saturday at the Genesis Scottish Open. Even the east coast haar couldn’t get in as it floated about in the Firth of Forth but didn’t get much beyond the peripheries of the Renaissance club.
That dense sea fog could have an access all areas lanyard for today’s finale, mind you.
In fact, its predicted, pesky presence by the meteorological gurus has led to tournament officials bringing a two-tee start into operation between 11:30am and 1:40pm.
She’s an old rascal is Mother Nature. Whatever spanner she tries to throw in the works, however, the stage is set for another gripping final day in this neck of the golfing woods.
Some 14 players are within four shots of the lead. The men to catch are Chris Gotterup and a certain Rory McIlroy as they share top spot on 11-under.
McIlroy’s rise to the summit would’ve had the sponsors drooling like bloodhounds gazing in a butcher’s window as the world No 2 and reigning Masters champion manoeuvred himself into position to nab a second Scottish Open title in three years.
After his well-documented post Masters malaise, it seems the Northern Irishman is back. “I'm pretty much there,” confirmed McIlroy after a four-under 66 lifted him into familiar territory.
The rest have been warned. Ambling along at one-under through the turn, McIlroy upped the ante on the long 10th when he unleashed two cracking blows to set up an eagle chance.
He couldn’t take it, but the birdie gave him renewed oomph. “That got me going,” added McIlroy, who would go on to make further gains at 14 and 16 in conditions that tested the golfing guile.
“It was definitely more of a fairways and greens type of day and I feel like I did that really well.”
A couple of days earlier, McIlroy had been treading water in round one until he birdied his final three holes. From playing catch up, he’s now one of the men to catch.
“Once I made those three birdies in a row to finish on Thursday night, it felt like, ‘okay, I'm in the golf tournament and I can build on that momentum,” he reflected.
“That's what I've done over the last couple of days. I’ve had a bit of a lull (since the Masters) but I feel like I came to this tournament with renewed enthusiasm and excitement for the rest of the year.”
Plonked in exactly the position he wants to be, McIlroy is a man on a mission. “I’m excited,” he said. “The tee times are pushed up a little bit, so hopefully get the business done early-ish and I can watch the last two or three sets of the Wimbledon final.”
If it’s anything like the women’s final, he’ll have no chance of seeing any of it.
As for co-leader Gotterup? Well, the 25-year-old clung on in there with a level-par 70 that was more of a grind than the free-flowing 61 that had propelled him into the halfway lead the previous day.
The world No 158 will now go toe-to-toe with a man 156 places higher than him on the global rankings. Gotterup is up for the fight.
"I know what I'm capable of,” said last year’s Myrtle Beach Classic winner. “I won in college, and I've won on the tour. I know what it takes. It's going to take a good round for sure, but I'm going to go give it my best.”
After an early bogey, Gotterup got going with a birdie on the fifth before his tee-shot on the short sixth birled out of the cup as he flirted with a hole-in-one.
He had chances coming in but, in this game, there’s always a feeling of what-if and if-only. “I would have liked to pick one up on 16,” he added. “I felt that hole was playing easy-ish this week, but I hit a poor iron shot. That was the one that really bothered me.”
Wyndham Clark, the former US Open champion, is lurking on nine-under in a posse that also includes Marco Penge, Jake Knapp and another past US Open winner, Matthew Fitzpatrick.
The Englishman’s last tour win came on Scottish soil in the 2023 Dunhill Links.
“It would be a big deal,” said Fitzpatrick, who has endured a prolonged dip in form. "It's been a tough 18 months. But a win changes that and hopefully I can use it as a stepping stone.”
There wasn’t much to write about on the home front. But we’ll write about it anyway.
Robert MacIntyre, the defending champion, had made the cut with nothing to spare on Friday night but his hopes of mounting a weekend charge up the order petered out on the front nine of round three.
A demoralising stretch at the seventh, eighth, and ninth spawned a double-bogey, a bogey and another double-bogey. MacIntyre ended up with a 72 and finished on a one-over total.
Grant Forrest, a Renaissance member, had to settle for a 71 and was sitting on the four-under mark while Connor Syme’s round three push came unstuck on the inward half.
The new KLM Open champion had been making decent progress after three birdies in a row at the third, fourth and fifth but a blizzard of bogeys after the turn saw him come home in 40 for a 72 and he joined MacIntyre on one-over.
“It was frustrating and I’m really disappointed,” sighed Syme. “My putter let me down. I just couldn’t buy a putt.”
