McIlroy can have Manassero for firm within the ultimate spherical after the Italian combined three birdies and 4 bogeys in a 70.
Manassero, who ended an 11-year anticipate a DP World Tour win earlier this yr in South Africa, had three bogeys in a five-hole stretch on his entrance 9, and whereas he birdied the par-five twelfth, he let one other shot slip after discovering the gorse together with his drive on the seventeenth.
Nonetheless an element is MacIntyre, who thrives in blustery circumstances and has already received twice on the PGA Tour this yr.
The 28-year-old Scot was four-over by means of seven holes of his second spherical earlier than turning issues round in spectacular trend with a run of 5 straight birdies to maneuver to one-under on the midway mark.
And by bettering his rating by two on Saturday, he can be fancied to make a transfer on Sunday and tear up the script for McIlroy as he bids to grow to be the primary participant to win the Scottish and Irish Opens in the identical season.
“I believed it was sensible from form of begin to end there,” stated MacIntyre, who was pipped to the 2023 Scottish Open title by McIlroy.
“It was completely brutal. Even downwind, you suppose you are going to get a little bit of respite nevertheless it’s so laborious to regulate the golf ball. It appears like there is a catastrophe across the nook at any second.”
Hojgaard stays an element, too, the Dane’s trigger aided by three successive birdies to start out his again 9 as he joined the group on three-under alongside MacIntyre, England’s Jordan Smith (69) and South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen (71).
