Rory McIlroy -12 will head into Sunday’s final round of Genesis Scottish Open five shots behind -17 leader Ludvig Aberg

Rory McIlroy -9 started Saturday at 02:56PM with Alex Noren and three shots behind -12 36 hole leader Ludvig Aberg. The Northern Irishman made his first move of day three at three advancing to -10 but shortly followed it up with a bogey at four to return -9. McIlroy is looking to create history by winning the Rolex Series Genesis Scottish Open two years in a row and kept that quest alive with birdies at four & five to reach -11. Robert MacIntyre -8 lost out to McIlroy 12 months ago at Renaissance and the Scottish golfer played 11 holes in -7 including an incredible eagle at five to reach -15. Aberg achieved his third birdie of day three at six to tie MacIntyre at the top of leaderboard on -15. Birdies were the order of play on Saturday at the par 70 links layout due to extremely calm conditions and McIlroy achieved birdies at nine & 10 to reach -13.

MacIntyre made his first mistake of day three with a bogey at 12 but bounced back three holes later to return -15. Aberg had his first wobble of the tournament with two bogeys in a row at 11 & 12 to return -14. MacIntyre finished with a bogey at 18 but signed for a sensational round of 63. “Overall I played absolutely brillantly. Tee-to-green was solid again”, said MacIntyre. Aberg finished his round with three birdies in six holes especially with an extraordinary tee shot at 17 to sign for a sensational -5 round of 65. “Played some good golf coming in”, said Aberg.

McIlroy needed a good finish to be in touch going into Sunday but was unsuccessful with his birdie effort at the reachable par five 16th hole. The 18th hole at Renaissance played extremely difficult on Saturday and McIlroy played this hole poorly resulting in a bogey. The Northern Irishman signed for a -3 round of 67. “Going to need to be at least 3-under through five to get myself right up there around the lead and from there just try to keep it going”, said McIlroy. Aberg -17, MacIntyre -16 looking to become first Scottish golfer since Colin Montgomerie in 1999 to win on home soil but it won’t be a two-horse race as seven players are within four shots of leader including Americans Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala. Seamus Power -1 quest of qualifying for Royal Troon is becoming extremely unlikely as Antoinne Rozner, Erik Van Rooyen and Cameron Davis are in pole position to book three Open Championship places. Day one -8 leader Justin Thomas is way off the pace as he will start Sunday on -5.