Pebble Beach, California….

Top-ranked Scot Russell Knox brought all but one of the four Pebble Beach par-5s to its knees on day three of the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Knox snatched four-birdies, three of them of the par-5s at this year’s US Open host venue, in a bogey-free round of 68 for a nine-under tally and endthe day brilliantly sharing seventh place in the rain-affected £Stg  5.87m event.

Scotland’s Russell Knox restores his dented pride birding the closing two holes in a round of a two over par 72 on the first day of the Honda Classic

Knox trails six strokes adrift of England’s Paul Casey who added a 67 to Friday’s sizzling 64 on the nearby rain-softened Spyglass Hills course.

Casey heads to day four leading by three shots at 15-under par from four-time former AT & T winner Phil Mickelson, who rescued a horror round with a 13th hole birdie and then a tap-in eagle ‘3’ at the par-5 14th.

Knox birdied the par-5 second hole from six feet.  He then birdied the par-5 sixth hole from two-feet.  In heading to the back-nine, Knox holed a 16-foot birdie putt at the par-5 14th and then immediately birdied the par-4 15th.

Then at the par-5 18th the Scot had a 21-foot for a complete set of birdies on Pebble’s par-5s only to just miss the hole in managing a par.

In the bigger picture, Knox hit 10 of the 14 rain-affected fairways missing just the first, ninth, 15th and 16th.

Knox then found 12 greens in regulation and once on the greens, he had just 27 putts and with incredibly nine one-putts.

“I played really well out there today given the condition of the course, as they’re even a lot softer after that deluge we had late yesterday,” he said.

“So, it’s even more important to hit the fairways and I managed to do that today while I got the putter working really well.

“Looking at the board, I’m two off a top-three and just three off second, so I’m really looking forward to last day.

“And Matt (Amateur partner Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons NFL captain and quarter-back) and I are having a great time out there and staring at what would be a great top-three finish.”

Indeed, pair of Knox and Ryan (64, 65 and 65) sharing sixth place at 21-under par with Casey and his partner leading by four on 28-under par.

And Knox, and currently ranked No. 62 in the world, knows he will need to get himself inside the top-50 if he’s to return in June for the year’s second Major.

“That’s the big goal to be back here in June and another round like that today again on Pebble Beach will help the cause,” he said.

Should Knox finished fifth he could move as high as 56th while a third would see the Scot moving into the magical top-50 and probably right on 50th in the world.