Scottish Open Golf: Scots in the pack chasing leader Francesco Molinari YOU got an idea what it was like at Castle Stuart when defending champion Luke Donald sighed ruefully on the completion of his third round and said: "Shot 68 and I lost ground!" The same for Louis Oosthuizen who bemoaned all the missed opportunities. "Left loads out there," said the South African. The fact that Oosthuizen was a little despondent despite having shot a six-under 66 tells its own story. Save for a brief spell of rain mid-afternoon this was another benign day by the Inverness Firth, a day when the course desperately needed the protection of the linksy breeze, but didn't get it. In inviting conditions, the field ripped the place apart again. The headliners were Francesco Molinari who leads by one from Anders Hansen and who is trying to emulate his brother, Edoardo, by winning this tournament, Edoardo having won it two years ago at Loch Lomond. By his own admission, he's playing the best golf of his life after finishing second in France last week and making the top-ten in five of his last seven tournaments, a run of form that included a win in Spain. He took 67 in his third round, not quite the jaw-dropping brilliance of his 62 on Thursday, but good enough to keep his momentum going. Given his coolness, you'd have to mark him down as favourite to finish what he started so spectacularly even though the chasing pack is bunched and impressive. More than once his name has been whispered by his peers in relation to not just the Scottish Open, but the Open championship itself next week. "My record at the Open is not great," he said, "but simply because most of the times, unfortunately, when I got there I wasn't playing very well. I had decent success as an amateur on links courses, so I enjoy this kind of golf. It would be good to get a win as a professional on a links course before the Open. That would be a boost of confidence. I think I'm a better player now. My short game is much better. My putting is better. Probably my ball-striking is better as well. The first goal [today] is winning. If I don't, I'm still going to go to Lytham knowing that I'm playing well and putting well and everything in the game is pretty much where I want it to be. Of the marquee names, Phil Mickelson, pictured right, delivered again, backing up his 64 of Friday with a 65, a hugely encouraging return to form for a man who gave up on the family holiday in the Eternal City last week in an attempt to find himself by the Inverness Firth. "I feel like my game is starting to improve each day," said Mickelson, who looks to have left behind the mediocrity that has pockmarked his summer. More and more it looks like he made a sound decision to come here in search of confidence. There was something for everyone; reinforcement of the view that Molinari has it within him to contend at Lytham, signs of life from Mickelson and hope in large dosages of a home winner, Marc Warren lying two behind Molinari after a 64 and Martin Laird just one shot further back after a 64 of his own. Of the seven Scots left standing, none of them shot worse than 69 and, in a sense, all of them were overshadowed by the continuing excellence of Jack McDonald, the 19-year-old amateur, who made birdie on 18 to make the cut on the mark on Friday and then threw in a 68 in his third round. Heady days for the young man. He's eight-under for his championship. Like Laird, Peter Whiteford is only three behind the Italian. Conditions today may be fractionally harder than yesterday - a puff of breeze is expected - but these guys know what they need to do. "I need at least a 66 to even have a chance," said Whiteford. For some, of course, there is a battle within a battle, a tournament to win, for sure, but also a place in the Open field to play for, too. Warren is one of those and as coincidence would have it, his partner yesterday, Soren Kjeldsen is another. Kjeldsen went beserk from the start, making seven birdies in his opening eight holes and covering the outward nine in 29 shots. It was to Warren's credit he stuck in there amid this barrage. The pair of them are locked together on 15-under. "It was more about the way he started," said Warren. I was conscious of not trying to put too much pressure on myself and force birdies. I was really just trying to stay patient when he was going well and take as many good vibes from him as possible. I've put myself in contention [of claiming that Open slot]. It's good thinking about things like that on a Sunday rather than having an early alarm call and just trying to fight for position. For the most part, it was a turkey shoot and you felt for the place. Two straight Scottish Opens and we have known many weather conditions; bright sunshine, torrential rain, ruinous landslides and yet the one thing that was needed most of all - a testing wind - has hardly been felt, despite Mickelson's near-plaintive cry to the Gods to let it blow. It hasn't. Hence, Molinari is 17-under with the winner sure to be beyond the 20-under mark come the denouement this evening. Yesterday, par was probably 69. "It's not playing like a true links," said Laird. People like me coming over from America don't have to adapt too much. I've not had a real links punch-shot all week. If that sound like criticism, it wasn't intended as such. Laird is a fan. I played alongside Phil [Mickelson] for the first two days and he was raving about it all of the way round. He loves it and I'm going that way too because, the more I play it, the more I like it. There was the odd train wreck, none odder than the affable Swede, Alex Noren, who was going along serenely in Molinari's slipstream when he took 8 on the 12th, a par-5 where Noren gifted one ball to the scrub on the right and a second to the Inverness Firth on the left. Noren was one stroke behind his playing partner starting the hole and four behind when he eventually finished it. Even then, Noren rallied and isn't out of it. It was a rare moment of slapstick on a day that yielded red numbers by the bucketload. Just after 3pm, with the leaders not yet finished their front nine, the stats man of the European Tour reported that there'd already been 353 birdies and nine eagles. Frankly, anybody shooting over par should have left the premises with a paper bag over his head. Today will be another day when a largely defenceless golf course gets brutalised. The race to the finish will be intense, but amid the frenzy, Molinari is looking remarkably calm. They say his brother is the excitable one - and they're not wrong.