India's Shiv Kapur made a commendable move upward on the traditional moving day in the third round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open as he shot a bogey-free four-under 66 that pushed him 40 places ahead of overnight place here today.
Kapur, who made the cut on the line at two-under for 36 holes, is now six-under 204 for 54 and is tied 24th with quite a few players yet to finish their penultimate round.
Meanwhile late yesterday, Anirban Lahiri's wait to see if he made the cut ended in vain as the cut fell at two-under and he was stranded at one-under. Also missing the cut with Lahiri was 2012 Scottish Open champion, Jeev Milkha Singh.
Kapur said, "The conditions were tough and breezy in the morning and we played a few holes in rain and battled through that. So, it was challenging indeed."
On his game, he was very positive, and added, "I played solid and bogey free and everytime you can do that, you know your game is in good shape. It is also nice to have a turn around after a few disappointing weeks recently."
Speaking of his plan for the final round, Kapur added, "I have nothing to lose tomorrow and am going to go all out to try and make a bunch of birdies and make a late bid for one of the (British) Open slots."
The Scottish Open is the last event in the The Open Qualifying Series and three players, who are not already exempt and who finish in the top ten here will secure places in The Open Championship at St Andrews from 16-19 July. In the event of a tie, the qualifying place(s) will go to the player with the highest ranking in the Official World Golf Ranking at the start of that week.
With play still in progress, as many as 15 of the 23 ahead of Kapur have already qualified for British Open, so a solid final round could give the Indian an outside chance of joining Lahiri at the year's third Major.
With the third round still in progress, Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin is in lead at 11-under through 16 holes in third round and just one shot behind him is Daniel Brooks, who made his first cut in five months last week at French Open, is lying tied second at 10-under but is one-over through seven holes in third round. Jacquelin is six-under for the day.
Veteran Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez was 10-under through 10 holes in third round, but dropped back to back bogeys to fall to eight-under.
Asia's top star, Thai Thongchai Jaidee (67-69-69) is tied 33rd.
