Pádraig Harrington moved to within one shot of Stewart Cink heading into the final round of the US Senior Open and he insists all the pressure is on the American despite harbouring ambitions of a third championship title at Scioto Golf Club.
Harrington put together a third round of 66 to reach eight-under par but that was only good enough for second place as a blistering 64 from Cink saw him clip to the top on nine-under.
Harrington is bidding to become just the second man after Miller Barber to win the title three times while Cink wants to become the first person to win the first three senior majors of the year.
“Shoot at least one better than Stewart tomorrow,” he said of Sunday’s game plan. “That’s not ruling out the other guys. You know, who knows. I play each shot as it comes. I really try and get into that kind of mindset I was in today and see if that works out.
“Stewart is leading the tournament. It’s on his shoulders. He’s the one with the lead. I’m now chasing, so I don’t have that feeling [of pressure] at all.”
It was a slow start for the 54-year-old who bogeyed the par-3 4th but he clicked in to gear with a birdie on the fifth and three birdies in a row on the 9th, 10th and 11th. A brace of birdies on 13 and 14 saw him grab a share of the lead but he did leave the course with a sour taste in his mouth after a closing bogey.
“It was a slow enough start, even though I didn’t feel like — I played okay. I think at one stage when the guys eagled the sixth, I hadn’t put it out, I was six shots behind, so I was feeling it a bit at that stage.
“But I suppose when it comes to a U.S. Open, you always know if you hang in there and try and dig deep when things aren’t going your way and you wait for a run, which obviously happened on 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14, five birdies in six holes, that’s the sort of run that gets any card moving.
“It was a nice — I’m looking out there, even the up-and-down on 6 there was important, that birdie. So there was a lot of good fight in me today.
“It’s always hard to win these things. Stewart is not giving it up. George [McNeill] had a good day, too. I see the three of us playing tomorrow again. Miguel is just there behind.
“I kind of envisage it’s going to be another long day tomorrow.”
It’s set to be a closely fought contest with George McNeill in close proximity on seven-under after a 69 while Miguel Angel Jimenez is a shot further back after a 67.
The joint low round of the day came from Cink and Darren Clarke with the latter in a share of fifth place on three-under as he looks to win his second senior major.
The 2011 Open champion admits he needs to shoot the lights out and hope for a favour from the quality players ahead of him.
“Yeah, depends what they finish up. You got two of the best players on the Champions TOUR and in the world in the over 50s in Stewart and Padraig. I think I’m going to have to go even lower tomorrow if I want to give myself a chance.
“It’s nice to be shoot a 6-under.”
Meanwhile, Chris Devlin fell back to one-under after a 71 and he shares 11th place.
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