Shane Lowry carded a third round of 70 to sit eight points off the lead of America’s Andrew Putnam in the Barracuda Championship in Reno.
Lowry’s third round was worth eight points - meaning he now has 30 overall, leaving him with plenty of work to do in Sunday’s final round.
Putnam leads the pack on 38 points after a 65 on Saturday, with Sam Saunders three points back in second.
The Barracuda Championship — formerly known as the Reno-Tahoe Open — uses a Modified Stableford format, which allocates points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole.
Eight points are awarded for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie, zero for a par, minus one for a bogey and minus three for a double bogey or worse.
Chad Campbell carded a tournament-best round of 62 to put himself into contention in Nevada.
The American rose 44 places to third on 32 points after a round including nine birdies, one eagle and a bogey on the par-4 14th.
Seamus Power picked up two points in his second round after a 73, leaving him in a share of 27th place on 20 points overall.
Padraig Harrinton posted his best score of the week on Saturday - his 69 was worth six points to move him to 13 for the tournament, while Graeme McDowell’s 71 (four) moved him to 11 points.
The leader after day two — Australia’s Aaron Badderley — shot a 74 at the Montreux Golf and Country Club and is tied with Scotland’s Martin Laird on 26 points.
Collated third round scores & totals in the Barracuda Championship (USA unless stated, par 72):
38 Andrew Putnam 6 17 15
35 Sam Saunders 10 13 12
32 Chad Campbell 6 4 22
30 Shane Lowry (Irl) 10 12 8
29 John Oda 7 9 13, J.J. Spaun 7 12 10
26 Michael Thompson 10 3 13, Chris Stroud 7 6 13, Ollie Schniederjans 17 8 1, Martin Laird (Sco) 9 8 9
25 Derek Fathauer 6 14 5
24 Matt Jones (Aus) 10 10 4, Scott Stallings 9 9 6, Zac Blair 12 12
23 Ethan Tracy 9 6 8, Alex Cejka (Ger) 10 6 7, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 3 10 10, Tom Hoge 5 8 10
22 Benjamin Silverman (Can) 11 8 3, Dylan Meyer 10 2 10
21 Hudson Swafford 12 10 , Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 7 8 6, Ken Duke 2 8 11, Patrick Rodgers 9 3 9, Brandon Harkins 5 13 3
20 Tom Lovelady 10 6 4, John Merrick 11 12 -3, Doug Ghim 6 3 11, Johnson Wagner 6 2 12, Parker McLachlin 4 3 13, Seamus Power (Irl) 8 10 2, Charlie Beljan 10 5 5
18 Denny McCarthy 14 3 1, Kris Blanks 6 4 8, Vaughn Taylor 2 6 10, Lanto Griffin 8 5 5, Jonathan Byrd 1 9 8, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 3 6 9
17 Kevin Tway 8 8 1
16 Joel Dahmen 9 9 , Ricky Barnes 15 2, Nick Hardy 6 4 6, Dicky Pride 8 1 7, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 11 6, Conrad Shindler 5 8 3
15 William McGirt 6 2 7, D.J. Trahan 8 10 -3
13 Billy Hurley III 6 1 6, Harris English 2 8 3, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 6 1 6
12 Sulman Raza 2 14 -4, Jonathan Kaye 8 7 -3, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 6 11 -5, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 6 2 4
11 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 4 3 4, Rod Pampling (Aus) 9 4, Andres Romero (Arg) 4 5 2, Cameron Beckman 5 3 3, Robert Streb 13 -3 1
10 Martin Flores 4 5 1, Grant Booth 7 3
8 Nicholas Lindheim 1 6 1
7 Heath Slocum 4 5
6 Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 10
5 Brendon Ger Jonge (Zim) 7 4 -6, Nick Taylor (Can) 2 6 -3
3 Brian Davis (Eng) 5 5 -7
2 Omar Uresti 8 2 -8
