Opportunity Knox for a home win for Russell
Russell Knox “slept like a king” before moving within striking distance of a stunning victory in his home open.
Now the top Scot at Gullane is just one round away from being crowned for real.
Birdies at 8, 11, 12, 14 and 16 helped Knox to an impressive 66, as the wind began to bite in East Lothian.
Roared on by a partisan crowd, he ended up just two shots behind Sweden’s Jens Dantorp, who leads on 13-under-par.
Now, seven days on from his incredible Irish Open victory, he believes Scots fans can roar him onto more glory on his home turf.
“Can I have an edge here tomorrow? Yeah, absolutely,” he said.
“I mean, if it’s me versus someone who’s not Scottish, I sure hope the crowd are going to root for me!
“I will give it everything I’ve got – that’s for sure.”
Knox’s Irish Open exploits, as well as a strong showing at last month’s US Open, took their toll on the US-based star over the first couple of rounds at Gullane.
But he revealed a solid night’s rest on Friday – followed by a Scottish breakfast – gave him a new lease of life.
“I slept like a king last night,” he said.
“I was very tired on Friday, but the physio guys worked miracles on me.
“Then I had a good breakfast yesterday and that set me up.
“It wasn’t quite a full Scottish, but I had some good toast – I love the toast here, the bread is good – some poached eggs, some bacon and a nice little fruit bowl.
“It was a nice mix – but the toast and the bacon is where it’s at.”
After just three tournaments this year – all within the last five weeks – Knox is already fifth in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings.
It isn’t surprising, then, that he feels his current run of form is amongst the best in his career.
“This is good. I’m playing well,” he said.
“I’m thinking well too, which is big.
“Confidence can snowball in either a good or a bad way.
“Obviously, I’m riding a good wave right now, so hopefully I can keep riding it.”
Knox wasn’t the only Scot on his way up the leaderboard at Gullane.
Earlier in the day, Stephen Gallacher shot a magnificent 65 to move to nine under par, leaving himself poised just three shots off the lead.
“That was the plan, just to try and stay in contention” he said.
“Obviously when you’re nine shots behind, you’ve got to try and go as low as you can over the weekend and see what happens.”
Gallacher’s recent form has been disappointing, but Gullane has agreed with the Scots star.
Now he is aiming to cap off an encouraging few days with a high finish.
“Yeah, I’ve been struggling, to be honest,” he admitted.
“Though I’ve been working hard on my technique this week, just trying to make my bad shots better.
“My bad shots have been penal, so I’m trying to get them where they are back in the ballpark – that you can make pars from them, basically.
“It’s getting better and better every day.
“Today was really good. I only hit a couple of wayward drives, but they were just in the side of the fairway, so you could play with that, hence the how you could go bogey-free.”
Unfortunately, there was no such luck for Connor Syme, who followed up his course record 62 from Friday with a disappointing 72, Duncan Stewart, who shot 71, or Jamie McLeary, who went round in 72.