Scott Jamieson is determined to silence any doubters and also on target to make a Masters debut after storming to a five-shot lead on the third day of the Volvo Champions event in Durban.
The 29-year old Glaswegian snatched an eagle and five birdies in a four under par 68 to move to 15-under par in the elite 33-player field on the rain-soaked Durban Country Club course.
Jamieson was in South Africa’s third largest city only a month ago and breaking through to capture his first Tour title, the Nelson Mandela Championship.
Now the quietly-spoken Scot, currently ranked 100st in the world is in position to take out the ‘Durban Double’.
And if successful, Jamieson will soar to inside the top-50 in the world and earn himself a Masters invitation if he can hold that place to mid-March. If so he would join fellow Scots Sandy Lyle and Paul Lawrie in the year’s first Major.
“I used to attend college at Augusta State and I’ve managed to play Augusta National five times which was special,” he said.
“So to go back there and compete in the Masters would be special but that is a long way down the road and all I am doing is staying in the present.
“But then if someone had mentioned to me I would be taking a five short lead into the last round of this event I would be quite surprised, for sure.
“I would have struggled to believe them as there are so many great players here so I will take it and now try and win tomorrow.”
And Scott shrugged off suggestions he now has something to prove given heavy rain had reduced the Nelson Mandela Championship to 54 holes.
“Having gone through the play-off experience to win the Nelson Mandela meant I still had to win the tournament as opposed to just the leading player on the board, ” he said.
“So I don’t care if anyone’s got a problem saying that winning over two rounds wasn’t a real win so that doesn’t bother me.
“Let those saying that come out here and try and win on the European Tour and the position I am in now can’t get any better than this given the number of great champions in the field.
“If I did win I guess it might be some validation if anyone does doubt me but I don’t think I have anything to prove.
“And besides I was one of the highest ranked players in the Nelson Mandela event.
“Maybe now if I do win tomorrow they might hand me the keys to the city.”
A win also would qualify him for next month’s $US 8.75m WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship and a start also in August’s similar cash prize event, the WGC –Bridgestone Invitational.
For three days Jamieson has seen off three of the bigger names in golf.
Jamieson played the first round in the company of double Open Champion Padraig Harrington and finished a shot ahead of the Irishman.
On day two he was six shots lower than Dane Thomas Bjorn and on day three he pulled the rug out from under crowd favourite Louis Oosthuizen and with the Open champion signing for a 74 to drop back to a share of second.
“Yeah, it’s been three good days but golf is such a funny sport, you ond can play great or you can have a terrible day,” he added.
“Most of the guys played well today, but Thomas and Pádraig, I think they played fairly well when I played with them.
“So if you had asked me that early in the week, you always have your eye out, comparing yourself to them, but yeah, I managed to beat them both through the week, so that was nice.”
Frenchman Julien Quesne (67), Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee (67) and Oosthuizen share second place on 10-under par.
