Daniel Brooks blows Scottish Open lead

Gullane: Daniel Brooks saw his three-shot lead in the Scottish Open vanish in double-quick time as he started his third round at Gullane on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Englishman, ranked a lowly 528th in the world, badly pulled his opening tee shot into deep rough and, after hacking out, he took a double-bogey six.

That dropped him to nine under for the tournament and, with low-scoring again the order of the day at the East Lothian links course, he was back in a share of the lead with five others.

Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez birdied four of the first five holes before taking a bogey at six to get to that mark.

He was joined there by Raphael Jacquelin of France, Ryan Palmer of the United States and Rafa Cabrera-Bello of Spain.

Englishman Eddie Pepperell. meanwhile, was in the clubhouse at nine under after a superb 65.

Moving up to eight under going round the turn was American Matt Kuchar with Paul Lawrie of Scotland, Shane Lowry of Ireland, Johan Carlsson of Sweden and defending champion Justin Rose level with him after a handful of holes.

Low-scoring had been the order of the day so far in the British Open buildup tournament with the cut falling at two under and the early third round returns indicated more of the same with several players signing for 66s.

Brooks, had played the two best rounds of his career with a 64 and 65 to open up his three-shot lead, but that proved to be short-lived.

Chasing him at the start of the day on eight under was a six-strong group including Rose, Irish links specialist Lowry, back-to-form Graeme McDowell, and Palmer.

A further stroke back on seven under came Cabrera-Bello, Argentina`s Emiliano Grillo and English trio Tommy Fleetwood, Richard McEvoy and Richard Finch (68).