Padraig Harrington holds three-shot lead heading into final round of Champions Tour event

The Dubliner sits on 11-under-par after two rounds, three shots clear of David Toms, Shane Bertsch and Jerry Kelly.

Padraig Harrington holds a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club in North Carolina.

The Dubliner sits on 11-under-par after two rounds, three shots clear of David Toms, Shane Bertsch and Jerry Kelly.

Harrington opened the tournament with a 66 and kept up the momentum in the second round by taking the turn in just 31 shots.

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Further birdies on the 10th and 12th holes saw him build a four-shot lead which was trimmed to three after bogeys on the 15th and 18th holes.

“I’m pleased, yeah. It’s always disappointing to bogey the last, but a three-shot lead is a three-shot lead," he said after the round.

"You’d take that at the start of the week. You know, this is a great thing about golf, maybe it’s the worst thing about golf: Nobody gives you anything.

“I’ve got a three-shot lead and it means nothing. I’ve got to turn up tomorrow and probably play good golf. You just don’t get giventournaments. You don’t get to declare, hey, I’m three ahead, that means I win.

“I have to turn up tomorrow and play some good golf to keep this lead.

“It’s a tough golf course. It really is an intimidating golf course, especially for me. As I said, you just don’t want to be missing the fairways. There’s a lot of high numbers out there with the speed of the greens.

"Yeah, a three-shot lead could evaporate at any time tomorrow, so yeah, I’m going to have to go and play just as well as I have the first two days.”

Harrington is gunning for his ninth victory on the Champions Tour and third of the season.

But the 53-year-old, who continues to mix senior golf with the DP World Tour, says it is a challenging course.

“Yesterday it was really good. Like I kind of knew I couldn’t play as well as I played yesterday. Today I hit some of those good shots and I hit some ropey ones at times as well.

“I think when it comes to golf, when you get into contention, it’s more about managing what you’re doing than anything else. It’s hard to be free up, let’s say, when you’ve got a lead, especially on this course.

“I was happy that I managed myself well. I holed a few putts today. I shot 66 yesterday and I think I holed 36 feet of putts in total yesterday. I holed a 90-footer on the third today, so I blew that out of the water pretty quickly. So yeah, two different days.”

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