Sugrue rues missed putts as Rai targets wire-to-wire win at Galgorm

Only four strokes separate top ten but Sugrue out of contention

England’s Aaron Rai on the 18th hole at 

England's Aaron Rai will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after shooting a three-under 67 at Galgorm Castle on Saturday.

The 25-year old, sitting on eight under, has won just once on the European Tour before, holding off the not inconsiderable challenge of Matthew Fitzpatrick to claim the 2018 Honma Hong Kong Open, and he will need to show similar steel in Co. Antrim tomorrow if he is to hold off the chasing pack.

Rai has sat atop the leaderboard ever since he completed his opening round. It would be a huge achievement to go from pillar to post but then he managed just that in Hong Kong two years ago. The difference there was that he held a six-shot lead starting his final round and just about pulled through.

Only four strokes separate the top ten players after another challenging day of golf at the par-70 course and, with the best score of the week to date no lower than 65, it appears unlikely that anyone will make a run from distance to overtake those in the leading few groups now.

Whoever makes off with this year's title, it will not be an Irishman.

The failure of Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry to make the weekend denuded the event of any real star power and a three-over par for James Sugrue today saw the amateur slip back into the pack and onto a score of two-over par.

He was left to rue what could have been.

“Today I don't think I could have had a worse score. I actually played well. I played a lot better than I did yesterday but I just couldn't get the ball in the hole. It was just one of those days, played well. I felt like I hit some really good putts as well. They just weren't dropping, unfortunately.”

He now sits ten shots behind Rai who pulled clear on his own for the first time this week thanks to birdies at 12 and 15 on the way in. Immediately behind him is Australia's Maverick Antcliff who had been at -8 himself until carding a bogey at 16.

Sweden's Oscar Lengden, Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand and South Africa's Dean Burmester all sit on six-under.

It was a disappointing day all round for the domestic challenge with Colm Moriarty and Jonathan Caldwell both carding 73s which leave them at +7 and +4 respectively. Damien McGrane carded a six-over 76 to sit on +10 for the 54 holes.