Lucas Herbert will take a one shot lead into the final round of the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after Johannes Veerman trimmed his lead on day three at Mount Juliet Estate.
The Victorian was two ahead at the start of the weekend and extended that advantage to three shots just after the turn before two bogeys on the back nine saw him sign for a 70 and sit at 15-under.
That opened the door for American Veerman, who carded a 67 to be the nearest challenger, two shots clear of South African Justin Harding, whose 65 was the lowest round of the day.
Swede Rikard Karlberg, Italian Francesco Laporta and England’s Dale Whitnell were then at 11-under, with Herbert, Veerman and Laporta on course to earn a spot at The Open Championship.
After opening rounds of 64-67, Herbert is looking to become the second wire to wire winner on the 2021 Race to Dubai after Bernd Wiesberger at the Made in Himmerland presented by FREJA.
Veerman, meanwhile, will be going for his own piece of history as he aims to become just the second American since 1972 to win on the European Tour on July 4, following in the footsteps of 1982 Scandinavian Enterprise Open winner Bob Byman.
But while Veerman is searching for a first European Tour top ten, Herbert already has win at last season’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic, and was not too worried about leaving the door ajar for the rest.
“Solid day,” he said. “Obviously conditions got pretty tricky out there and definitely tested everyone enough to get the scoring to go out a little bit.
“It was a solid bad day I guess you’d say but in some ways frustrating. I felt like I could have put some real distance between myself and the field and didn’t do that.
“I want to get to 20-under as a personal goal. So if I can do that, someone’s got to come catch me and if they do, good luck to them.
“To win the Irish Open would be really cool, whether it’s wire to wire or not. I think it would be a really cool one to put on your resumé that you’ve won the Irish Open.”
Herbert almost holed his approach to the second and made a three-footer for birdie before taking two putts from 22 feet at the par-5 fifth to get to 15-under.
He was three ahead at that point but Veerman trimmed the gap as he made a dash to the turn after birdieing the first and bogeying the third.
He put his approach to six feet for an eagle at the fifth and then pitched to tap-in range at the eighth before holing from 15 feet at the ninth.
Herbert re-established his cushion with two putts from the fringe at the eighth but Veerman made a two-putt birdie of his own at the 10th.
An up-and-down from the sand on the 10th extended the lead once more but Herbert missed the green on the 11th and it was back to two.
Veerman found sand at the par-3 14th to drop a shot but Herbert did the same and the leader was having his first wobble of the day.
Veerman then got up and down at the 17th and the lead was cut to one, with Herbert saving par after a poor tee shot on the last.
[MAIN IMAGE: European Tour]
