Matthew Jordan is hoping for a full circle moment at the 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as he looks to realise his dream of a first DP World Tour title at the site of his 2017 St Andrews Links Trophy victory as an amateur.
The Englishman, who has finished as the runner-up twice this season already, carded a bogey-free 66 during his third round at Kingsbarns to finish at 16-under-par, to sit two behind leader Casey Jarvis heading into the final round.
Jordan, whose most recent runner-up finish came at the Nexo Championship in Scotland in August, said he was excited to be in contention at a place where he has enjoyed amateur success.
"I want to be in the last few groups and I want to give myself a really good chance, certainly, on Sunday, and yeah, that's what I've done today," he said.
"So let's see what tomorrow brings.
"I have a few memories, my dad was an R&A member before I was a pro. I have a few memories of him and my dad playing the Old Course, which was brilliant. So of course the St Andrews Links, I managed to win that one as well, my first big amateur title. It's a place I'm quite fond of."
Starting with four straight pars, Jordan made four birdies in his next six holes to catch Casey Jarvis at the top of the leaderboard each time the South African extended his advantage.
A final birdie at the 12th moved Jordan to 16-under, parring his way in to set the target, before Jarvis pulled ahead by two with two more birdies over his back nine.
Jordan's third round 66 at Kingsbarns came after an opening 69 at St Andrews and an impressive seven-under 65 at Carnousties, beating his previous best score on the Angus Links by five strokes.
With two top tens in this event (2021 and 2024), The Open (2023 and 2024), and amateur victories at both the 2017 Links Trophy in St Andrews and the 2018 Lytham Trophy, Jordan has a proven track record around Links Courses.
Having grown up playing Hoylake, Jordan admits he feels this style of course feels natural to him.
"I think it's quite natural. I've been brought up on a links and people say, oh, you seem to do quite well on it. It's just the fact as a kid, I played with my friends, nine years old, kind of thing. It's all I ever knew, really, for a long period of time. It feels like home, the way you read greens, the start lines everything like that, everything is just more normal for me."
Heading into the final round, he's now hoping to combine his love for links golf with recent confidence gained from putting himself in a position to win, both at Nexo and in Denmark, which came in back-to-back weeks.
"What I wanted to do and felt like I hadn't done over the last 12, 18 months was put myself in a position to win, certainly. I kind of always felt that maybe I was a bit too far back and needed an amazing round to make it happen.
"Played really well in Denmark but haven't putted that well the last few months, not as well as my long game was, and so that was kind of carrying me through but then this week has been brilliant with it. You know, he put in a lot of work. Kept speaking about it. I kept going on. I haven't really sulked. So that was the pleasing aspect prior to this week.
"So for those two events, and obviously for this one now, yeah, just pleasing to get up there. And then from then on, just try and win a golf tournament, and that's the best pressure and that's where you really see yourself at.
"Of course, yeah, confidence, I've done well in the last couple events. But golf's a difficult game, and it's tricky. So yeah, we'll see what tomorrow brings."
