GRAHAM FOX GOES THREE CLEAR AFTER THREE ROUNDS AT GLENEAGLES

     

   GRAHAM FOX in action during his flawless round of 65 today.

     Image by ANDY FORMAN

FROM RON MARSHALL

PGA PRESS OFFICER, SCOTTISH REGION

Ever-reducing scores in the 60s have set up Graham Fox for Thursday's  final round of the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship over the King’s Course.

The 35-year-old produced a flawless stellar round of 65, six under par, to move three shots clear of Aberdeen’s Scott Henderson, with another major threat, Greig Hutcheon, and Kenny Hutton a stroke farther back.

And with just a shade more luck Fox could have shaved a few strokes off that.

“I three-putted the last, and missed two five-footers for birdies at the 14th and 17th.  I hadn’t been putting sharply enough, so I took an old centre-shafted putter from my car boot, and it’s been working well.  I hadn’t touched it since the (European) Tour school last December.”

 No less an authority than Hutcheon, who was playing immediately ahead of Fox, attested to his brilliance. “Every time we looked round, shots were raining down on the flag from Graham and from Kenny.  He’s going to be a hard act to beat tomorrow.”

 Henderson has knocked on the door of this championship for years – or, as he preferred to describe it, “I’ve thrown it away a few times!”

He also threw away his electric caddie-car after six holes, after the handle had snapped at the third.  “I pushed it as best I could for three holes until the PGA brought me out a replacement.”

A former European Tour Rookie of the Year, Henderson reckoned it was hard to go for the flags on several greens. “I’m hitting a club more, softer, to get them to sit in the right place.  It’s a bit of a game of chess really. You can only do your best on any given day – that’s the nature of golf.”
BELOW EXPECTATIONS

Hutcheon, signing for his third 68, said “I’m not going to moan, but on a good day like this you should be looking for a 65, 66 or 67.”   

 Hutton, joint overnight leader with Fox, did nothing wrong in a round of 69 – except his putter had fallen out of favour. “I holed nothing, but this is certainly the best I’ve done in the Scottish championship.  I’ll just need to sustain it for one more round.”

  Somebody who couldn’t do that was defending champion, Alan Lockhart, whose challenge disintegrated as he signed for a seven-over 78 and a four-way tie on 14th place.