Michael Stewart sets up chance to land maiden EuroPro Tour win at Leven

The 32-year-old Ayrshireman moved into pole position in the £49,000 Eagle Orchid Scottish Masters after adding a best-of-the-day 62 to an opening 65 on the Fife coast.

The eight-under-par effort included a burst of four birdies in a row to start the front nine, having teed off at the tenth and, after adding two more gains, he stormed home in 28.

Sitting on 13-under-par, Stewart holds a two-shot lead over English duo Nick Watson and Brandon Robinson Thompson after they signed for matching scores for the second day running, having opened with 64s then adding a 65.

Michael Stewart takes a two-shot lead into the final round of the Eagle Orchid Scottish Masters at Leven Links. Picture: Tartan Pro Tour

“So far, so good,” said Stewart of his position. “Today was one of those days when I seemed to go into cruise control while I also had a couple of slices of luck, which you need when you shoot a score like 62. I played really solid.”

Commenting on his birdie burst, he added: “At the first, I knocked in 22-footer then holed one from ten feet at two then three about the same and then four was about 15 feet.

“I missed a couple of really good chances on my front nine, but I just stayed patient because if one dropped I knew that it might turn into a few and that’s what happened.

Stewart, a former Scottish and South African Amateur champion, has clocked up seven top-10 finishes in 11 events this season on the third-tier circuit, with his worst finish since missing the cut in the opening event of the campaign being a tie for 17th.

“It kind of shows where my game is at the moment,” he admitted. “It’s not a course I’m going to say that I’ve figured out how to play yet, but the more I play it, the more comfortable I feel on it.”

The Scot finished second in this event at Montrose in 2017 before coming close again to landing that breakthrough victory last week. “It’s important that I stick to my processes and not think about being the leader,” said Stewart. “I have a target in terms of an individual score tomorrow that I want to try and shoot.

"It’s been a case this season of playing a course in practice and trying to figure out what the lowest score is going to be then you try and shoot that three times.

“I actually said at the start that the way the course was playing 62 or 63 would be the lowest score of the week and, lo and behold, Jack South goes out and shoots 61 on Wednesday.”

Having taken ten shots more in his second circuit, South slipped five off the pace, with Sean Lawrie (65) and Greg Dalziel (70) sitting on seven and six-under respectively.