Perthshire, Scotland – Paul Lawrie shot 5-under 67 on Saturday to grab a 1-shot lead after three rounds of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
Lawrie, who won the Qatar Masters earlier this year, finished 54 holes at 12- under-par 204. He will go for his eighth European Tour title on Sunday.
Romain Wattel fired a 9-under 63 to soar 29 spots into second place at minus-11. Stephen Gallacher carded a 65 climb into third at 9-under-par 207.
Gary Boyd (64), Maarten Lafeber (67) and Brett Rumford (71) share fourth place at minus-8 on the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles.
Defending champion Thomas Bjorn is tied for seventh place at 7-under-par 209 after a 68 in round three.
Nicolas Colsaerts needs a top-two finish to earn the final automatic qualifying spot for the European Ryder Cup team. He managed a 1-under 71 to slide into a share of 13th at minus-6.
Mark Foster and Richard Finch shared the second-round lead. Foster stumbled to a 3-over 75 to end at minus-5, while Finch faltered to a 6-over 78 to fall to 2-under 214.
Lawrie was chasing Wattel from the start of his round since the Frenchman teed off some three hours before him. Lawrie converted back-to-back birdie chances at the second and third.
After four pars in a row, Lawrie converted a birdie effort on the eighth to get within one of Wattel at 10-under.
Around the turn, Lawrie tripped to a bogey on the 10th, but came right back with his third birdie in three days at No. 11. Lawrie birdied the 13th to grab a share of the lead.
Lawrie 2-putted for birdie on the par-5 14th to move one clear. However, he faltered to a bogey on the 15th. Lawrie erased that mistake with a 10-foot birdie effort on the 16th. He parred the last two to lead by one.
"Yeah, I played solid. I hit a lot good shots out there again and holed a bunch of 6- and 7-foot putts, which you've got to do out there," Lawrie said. "It was a very satisfying day."
Wattel, 21, flew into the lead early on with a stellar front nine. He birdied the second and fourth to move to minus-4. Wattel ran off four consecutive birdies from the sixth to jump into the mix.
After a par on No. 10, Wattel birdied the 11th. He stumbled to a bogey at 13, but came back with birdies on 14 and 16. Wattel closed with a birdie at the last to finish with a 1-shot lead. Lawrie moved ahead of him later, but Wattel is still in sight of earning his first tour title.
"It was really nice. I really enjoy every time you score low," Wattel said. "I especially enjoyed today, because it's a tough course, so for the third round, I needed a really good score to be back in the game and that's what I did. I'm really, really happy."
NOTES: Lawrie has won five of the previous six times in which he held at least a piece of the 54-hole lead, that includes his win earlier this year at the Qatar Masters...Wattel has just two top-5 finishes in his career and they both came last year at the South African Open and Open de Espana.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.