Matt Wallace appears to have taken the loss of top spot in the European Tour’s order of merit personally. Jon Rahm leapt above Wallace after success at the Irish Open last Sunday. Wallace’s third-round 64 here at the Scottish Open, which blasted him into contention at 15 under par, was followed by a warning that the Englishman has Rahm in his sights.
“This week is important for me,” he said. “I want to try to get back to No 1. Jon took that from me. So credit to him, he played great. I played with him the first two days and he was seriously flushing it, so I took inspiration from that and I want to try to overtake him again now. That friendly rivalry is quite nice. This is a big tournament for me.”
Wallace begins day four five shots adrift of Bernd Wiesberger, who backed up Friday’s 61 with a 65. At 18 under and two adrift, Erik van Rooyen is Wiesberger’s closest challenger. Wallace’s seven-under-par round did not satisfy him, however. He headed to the practice range on completion of media duties, with the Open supplying added motivation. “My performance today from tee to green probably wouldn’t cut it there,” he said.
Rory McIlroy’s 68 for an 11-under‑par total means he is playing for a top-10 finish on Sunday. He was three under inside nine holes of his third round and at that stage harbouring hopes of an assault on the leaderboard’s summit before costly bogeys at the 11th and 12th. “I didn’t quite take advantage of it the way I needed to,” he said.
“I still feel like my game is in good shape. It’s another round in the books and I’ll just try and finish off the tournament positively and move on to Portrush.
“I definitely got frustrated. I bogeyed 11 and then let that bother me and bogeyed 12 after that. There have been a lot of chances. I feel like I could be a few shots better but at the same time this is where I’m at. I could have, would have, should have but, as long as I go out tomorrow and try and put it all together and play a good, solid round, I’ll be happy with my week’s work.”
Jamie Donaldson is not yet eligible for the last major of the year but his dreams of returning to the venue where he won the Irish Open in 2012 remain alive after a third round of 65. Three Open spots are available for non-exempt players who finish within the top 10 in Scotland. At 15 under, Donaldson is in pole position to collect one of them.
“It is nice that it’s all starting to come together right at the right time,” said the Welshman. “I do really want to go next week but there is a long way to go and I’ve just got to go out there tomorrow and play as well as I did today.”
Andrea Pavan’s 62 offered the latest insight into how straightforwardly the Renaissance Club has played for a strong field. The Italian had made the cut by a shot; now he has a chance of a second victory in a month. Pavan held off Matt Fitzpatrick to secure the BMW International Open in late June. “I walked out of the recording area on Friday thinking I missed the cut,” Pavan said. “I was preparing dinner and then all of a sudden I got a text from my caddie saying: ‘Hey, get ready because you’re playing tomorrow.’ So that was nice. It’s fairly easy out there but you still have to shoot it.”
The European Tour implemented a second cut on Saturday after 80 players survived for the closing 36 holes. Tour regulations say the field is reduced for day four if more than 78 professionals qualify beyond round two.