Wallace eyes a Matt finish to deliver a special day in the Home of Golf
Matt Wallace revealed his mind was not even on playing good golf as he carded an excellent bogeyfree 66 yesterday to take control after three days of the Scottish Championship.
The Englishman recently slipped out of the world’s top 50 for the first time in almost two years after just one top-10 finish in 2020 but he has looked back to his best at Fairmont St Andrews.
Wallace has four European Tour wins to his name and it was easy to see why as he carded an eagle and four birdies to propel himself to 18-under and into a three-shot lead over countryman Garrick Porteous.
The Ryder Cup hopeful looks to be hitting some form just at the right time as the race to be part of Padraig Harrington’s European team resumes in the new year, and he believes a new mental approach is helping him rediscover his best.
“They’ve been telling me if I did this, it would come good at
It was nice to really focus on the process rather than trying to play good golf
some point so I really tried hard today,” he said.
“It was nice to really focus on the process rather than try to play good golf. It was literally like ‘let’s work on this and see how it goes’ and it came good.
“I enjoyed it a lot. Especially at the end there to finish the way I did was really nice. It’s probably the best I’ve ever handled myself.”
Wallace birdied the short fourth and when given another opportunity at a gettable par four on the seventh, he holed from 20 feet for an eagle to turn in 33.
He put an approach to four feet on the 14th and then holed a brilliant bunker shot on the 17th before taking advantage of the par five last to burst clear.
Porteous won the Amateur Championship in 2013, but is still looking for a first professional win on a top-flight tour and he
matched Wallace with a 66 to sit a shot ahead of Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and two clear of American Sean Crocker. Porteous said: “I’ve just been enjoying it really. I’ve not been taking it too seriously but I’ve ended up on the right side of the leaderboard which is nice.
“I’m playing nicely. I’m going to go and take a hot shower now and get warmed up again but I’m looking forward to getting going tomorrow and hopefully get off to a good start.”
Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Caldwell and English pair Chris Paisley and Eddie Pepperell were at 12-under, with the home challenge being led by Calum Hill and Marc Warren, who were 10 shots off the lead.
Connor Syme is a further shot back and Richie Ramsay and Ewan Ferguson are on seven-under.