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Nick Dougherty has a three-shot lead going into the final round of the Dunhill links at St Andrews.

The 25-year-old English star carded a third-round 66 for a 17 under total, He was buoyed by news of the England Rugby team’s amazing win over Australia.

And it was fitting that Australian Peter O’Malley lies in second place. The pair will play together in the final round today (Sunday).

But there are also some big names in the chasing pack. Scottish crowd favourite Paul Lawrie, reigning Open champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland and the English duo of Justin Rose and Steve Webster are all lurking near the top of the leaderboard.. They are all four shots back on 13 under.

Three-time Major winner Ernie Els is only one shot further behind in a share of seventh place with Niclas Fasth on 12 under par 204 but the man they will all have to catch is Dougherty who once again has a chance to notch his second European Tour victory having gone close on numerous occasions this season.

Dougherty spoke after his round. “I feel very relaxed and I don’t feel particularly stressed by the situation that I’m now in front,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m hung up as much as I was in the past if I don’t go ahead and win tomorrow. I am a tournament winner on The European Tour and I like to think I’m one of the best players on The European Tour.

“I expect to compete every week and I expect to win golf tournaments but golf is not that easy and sometimes you are going to screw up and sometimes it is not going to go your way. But tomorrow I am going to go out there to shoot a great score and I do that, then it’s going to be hard to catch me.”

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