Scottish Open highlights: Rory McIlroy feeling good again as he gets close to Masters level

After an ominous move on another sun-kissed day at The Renaissance Club, the world No 2 shares the lead with American Chris Gotterup heading into the final round of the $9 million Rolex Series event, having followed opening efforts of 68 and 65 with a third-round 66 to sit on 11 under par.

It’s the first time that McIlroy has been in contention in a tournament since becoming just the sixth player to complete a career grand slam by winning The Masters in April and, from sounding like a bit of a lost soul out in the US a few weeks ago in his attempt to hit the reset button, he looks to have rediscovered his mojo back on European soil.

“I think I've had a little bit of a lull, which I feel is understandable,” said McIlroy, who finished birdie-birdie two years ago to pip Bob MacIntyre here and land a first career victory on Scottish soil. “So I'm just getting back to the level that I know that I can play at.”

After his opening round on Thursday, when he finished birdie-birdie-birdie to salvage a decent start, McIlroy had talked about how he was “probably 80 per cent” in terms of his preparations for Portrush, where he missed the cut on The Open’s eagerly-anticipated return in 2019. With two more rounds under his belt, where is he now? “I'm pretty much there,” said the 36-year-old. “One of the things I was wanting to work on was my sort of ball flight in that left-to-right wind. I don't know if it's luck or whatever but the wind on the range now is straight off the left. It has been for the last day and a half.

“It's been nice to hit some balls in that wind direction and get a feel for that. I feel like I controlled my ball flight well today in the little bit of wind that was out there and my game is pretty good on the greens. My lag putting has been good. All the things you need to do well on links golf to succeed.”

In his opening two circuits, McIlroy had faced a gentle westerly wind but it switched to the east for this round. Despite that, he produced his best stuff on the tougher back nine, picking up shots at the tenth, 14th and 16th. It could have been an even better effort as birdie putts at both the 17th and 18th could easily have dropped.

“I hit two great shots into the tenth hole that sort of got me going,” he admitted. “Didn't convert the eagle putt, but, after that, I hit a lot of good tee shots, a lot of good iron shots. Held a couple of putts. Today with the way the conditions were, it was more of a ball-striking round. You couldn't rely on getting it up-and-down and putting. It was definitely more of a fairways and greens type of day and I feel like I did that really well.”

McIlroy had already won The Players Championship before finally getting a Green Jacket slipped over his shoulders at Augusta National. You get the feeling, though, that a win here could be every bit as satisfying after freely admitting that he’d found himself lacking motivation a few weeks back after feeling he’d climbed golf’s Everest.

“I don't know if I ever have fun playing golf,” he said, laughing, “but I sometimes enjoy it, yeah. I think when you're playing the way you want to play and the ball is coming out of the window that you're looking at, that's certainly more enjoyable than if it's not. Look, it's fun to be back here and play in front of so many kids out there and to have that support and that enthusiasm.”

Due to fog being forecasted for both Sunday morning and Sunday evening, the final round will not get underway until 11.30am, with the plan to have play finished for 7pm. “I'm excited to get out there,” admitted McIlroy, who will tee off earlier than scheduled in the final group due to a two-tee start being used. “Hopefully get the business done early-ish and I can watch the last two or three sets of the Wimbledon final (smiling).”

Little-known Gotterup, who led by two shots at the halfway stage, battled gamely for his level-par 70 to be in that final group, with four players - American duo Wyndham Clark and Jake Knapp and English pair Matthew Fitzpatrick and Marco Penge - two strokes off the pace in the battle for a $1.575 million top prize.

As was the case at the halfway stage, local man Grant Forrest is the leading Scot, sitting joint-28th on four under after a 71, with defending champion Bob MacIntyre and Connor Syme both on one over after they signed for matching 72s. “It was frustrating,” said Syme, who turned 30 on Friday, of his day’s work. “I’m really disappointed with the back nine. My putter let me down. I just could not buy a putt and I ended up making far too many bogeys.”

In the battle for the last three spots in The Open, Gotterup, Knapp and German Matti Schmid are the players on course to be heading to Portrush along with McIlroy, who hasn’t been there since his early exit six years ago but could be heading back as just the third multiple Genesis Scottish Open champion after Ian Woosnam and Ernie Els.