Lehmann takes route 66

American Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman did his confidence a power of good ahead of next week's British Open with a powerful move through the field at Loch Lomond today.

Having survived the halfway cut in the Barclays Scottish Open with nothing to spare Lehman – still in with a chance of qualifying for his own team and leaving a difficult decision to make – produced a five-under-par 66 to reach six under with a round to go.

Lehman was up from 55th to joint seventh as a result, although obviously all the overnight leaders had yet to tee off again.

Asked if his mind had turned to Hoylake next week already the 1996 British Open champion added: “I always take every round seriously. It’s not in my make-up to say there’s always next week, let’s get

this over with.

“I’m driving the ball extremely well and I’ve started rolling the ball well too. It’s all about confidence – and it’s building.

“If there wasn’t that little event called the Ryder Cup I would spent more time thinking about my own game and it might be even better.”

Lehman has now dropped outside the top 20 in the American standings and comments on the possibility of climbing into an automatic top-10 spot: “I would have to play great for a month and a half.”

That month and a half, though, includes not just the British Open, but also the US PGA championship and they each carry extra points.

Meanwhile, Ernie Els joined Lehman on six under with three birdies in his first six holes and was on course for the boost he said he desperately needed after failing to win so far this year.

Paul McGinley looked as though he was going to give his Ryder Cup position another push when he also had three early birdies, but then came bogeys at the eighth, 10th and 11th and the Dubliner, seventh in the current table, was back to two under.

Darren Clarke headed the field at 11 under, three clear of Ireland’s Damien McGrane, South African Charl Schwartzel and Swede Johan Edfors.