On moving day, Austrian Mathias Schwab motored into gear and accelerated away from the field in his quest for a breakthrough tour win in the Turkish Airlines Open.
For Shane Lowry, though, with one eye on his Race to Dubai ambitions, it was a case of going into reverse, as the British Open champion struggled with all facets of his game.
Schwab's third round 66 for a 54-holes total of 18-under-par 198 moved him into a three-stroke lead over a quintet of players: England's Ross Fisher and Tyrrell Hatton, American Patrick Reed, Scotland's Bob MacIntyre and Frenchman Benjamin Hebert.
For Lowry, who’d started out aiming to back up his second-round 65 and maintain an upward trajectory, it was a day to forget as he signed for 75 for 206, four under par, which saw him plummet down the leaderboard to tied 52nd. Pádraig Harrington birdied the 18th for a 74 to sit on 209, one under.
Schwab, the in-form 24-year-old who is looking for a first win on tour, had an eagle at the opening hole and further momentum was gained with a hat-trick of birdies from the ninth to the 11th.
“I was trying to not think anything, really. Just keep doing what I’ve been doing. I had a good flow there, a good little run. That’s usually for me, at least, when I’m just turning my head off and just playing golf,” he said of his mindset at that time.
“I’ll just try and do the same stuff that I’ve been doing the last few days, and I’m sure pars will not be enough tomorrow because it’s usually pretty gettable out here. I’ll just be aggressive and keep doing what I’ve been doing . . . the game plan is going to be the same as it’s been the last three days. The course is gettable and there are a lot of birdies out there, so I’ll just stay aggressive because pars won’t be enough,” said Schwab, fully aware that his pursuers will go flag-chasing their bids to catch him.
Lowry, for his part, never got going. From hardly putting a foot wrong on Friday when it seemed he had the ball on a string, he struggled with approach shots and even with his chipping and the putter stayed cold. The story of his day came on the Par-5 13th where, from the middle of the fairway and the green on in two, he pulled his approach wildly left into bushes and was forced to take a penalty drop and ran up one of his five bogeys.
LEADERBOARD
(British and Irish unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur)
198 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 65 67 66
201 Ross Fisher 69 64 68, Robert Macintyre 71 63 67, Tyrrell Hatton 68 68 65, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 67 70 64, Patrick Reed (USA) 71 65 65
203 Victor Perez (Fra) 68 69 66, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 70 67 66, Scott Jamieson 67 68 68
204 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 68 68 68, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 69 68 67, Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 65 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 67 68, Lee Westwood 71 65 68
205 Richie Ramsay 68 73 64, Paul Waring 70 67 68
206 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 70 68 68, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 68 67, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 73 67 66, Tom Lewis 65 70 71, Romain Langasque (Fra) 70 66 70, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 71 64 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 68 69 69, Thomas Detry (Bel) 67 66 73
207 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70 66, Alex Noren (Swe) 66 67 74, Joost Luiten (Ned) 67 69 71, Guido Migliozzi (Esp) 72 67 68, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 68 68 71, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 73 65 69, Danny Willett 67 66 74, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 68 66 73, Justin Rose 67 67 73, David Lipsky (USA) 66 68 73, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 66 70 71
208 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 71 68 69, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 75 67 66, Matthew Southgate 68 71 69
209 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 72 67 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 68 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 72 68 69, Gavin Green (Mal) 73 69 67, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 71 67 71, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 70 69 70
210 Matt Wallace 74 67 69, Sean Crocker (USA) 71 67 72, Renato Paratore (Ita) 73 68 69, Aaron Rai 68 67 75, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 68 68 74
211 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 72 70 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 70 72 69
212 Adri Arnaus (Esp) 75 67 70, Shane Lowry 72 65 75
213 Jordan Smith 71 71 71, Chris Paisley 73 72 68, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 72 70, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 69 72 72
214 Haotong Li (Chn) 73 71 70, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 73 70 71, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 73 68 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 72 72
215 Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 70 73 72, Pádraig Harrington 75 66 74
216 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 71 75 70, Justin Walters (Rsa) 75 73 68
217 Sam Horsfield 74 73 70, Oliver Wilson 71 74 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 72 70 75
218 Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 76 71 71
219 George Coetzee (Rsa) 71 71 77
220 Steven Brown 74 75 71, David Drysdale 72 72 76
222 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 71 75 76
223 (a) Taner Yamac (Tur) 72 72 79
