<\/p>\n
Norris carded a six-under-par 66 at Trump International Golf Links on Saturday to move to nine under overall, opening a two-shot advantage over Matthew Jordan heading into Sunday’s finale.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The highlight of the round came at the par-five fourth hole when Norris holed a remarkable second shot from 267 yards with a three-wood for an albatross.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norris admitted the shot exceeded expectations. “I was sort of borderline with a 3-wood there and my brother just gave me a number, and he said ‘trust it and go for it’, and I couldn’t have hit it any better,” Norris said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“And once it pitched on the green, he’s like ‘go in ‘, and I’m like ‘nah, whatever’ and the next minute it goes in, so I’m happy.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The albatross was the fifth of Norris’ professional career and the 124th recorded on the DP World Tour since 1999.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old followed that up with further birdies as Norris established a commanding lead before a bogey at the 15th briefly allowed the chasing pack to close the gap. “I’m very pleased with the way I played; I hit the ball nicely today and gave myself good chances,” Norris said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“A bit of fortune with an albatross on four, so pretty pleased with it.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norris also praised caddie and brother Kyle Norris, who has been alongside Norris throughout much of a professional career spanning more than a decade. “He’s not been important just over the last couple of days, but over the last 10 to 12 years. We have a good bond,” Norris said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“He knows my game better than anybody else.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jordan recovered from an opening-hole bogey to card a five-under 67 and move into second place on seven under.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Scott Jamieson sits third on six under after a round of 67.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Former halfway leader Matthew Southgate slipped back after a level-par 70 but remains in contention on four under alongside Keita Nakajima.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Connor McKinney, Andy Sullivan and Benjamin Follett-Smith are a further shot back on three under.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norris birdied the 17th to restore a two-shot cushion late in the round and narrowly missed the opportunity to break the course record outright on the final hole.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Instead, Norris settled for a closing par and a share of the course record, while putting himself in a strong position to challenge for a third DP World Tour title. “I think we are in a good position, go out there tomorrow, have some fun and try to give myself some chances of birdies and see what happens,” Norris said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43545,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-43544","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South African (SA) Golfer Shaun Norris will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Nexo Championship in Scotland after producing a course record-equalling round that featured a spectacular albatross.","published_date":"","news_description":"South African (SA) Golfer Shaun Norris will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Nexo Championship in Scotland after producing a course record-equalling round that featured a spectacular albatross.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43546,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43544\/revisions\/43546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}