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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 undergoing 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 build-up 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).
Leading scores after the third round of the Scottish Open at Gullane Golf Club - par 70- on Saturday:198 - Daniel Brooks (ENG) 64-65-69
199 - Raphael Jacquelin (FRA) 68-67-64
200 - Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 67-66-67, Joost Luiten (NED) 71-63-66, Rickie Fowler (USA) 66-68-66
201 - Matt Kuchar (USA) 66-68-67, Eddie Pepperell (ENG) 70-66-65, Russell Knox (SCO) 67-68-66
202 - Ryan Palmer (USA) 67-65-70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (ESP) 69-65-68
203 Ben Martin (USA) 69-66-68, Ross Fisher (ENG) 70-65-68, Paul Lawrie (SCO) 67-67-69, Branden Grace (RSA) 69-66-68, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 69-67-67, Pedro Oriol (ESP) 67-69-67, Gregory Havret (FRA) 66-68-69 204 Graeme McDowell (NIR) 66-66-72, Maximilian Kieffer (GER) 69-65-70, Shiv Kapur (IND) 68-70-66, David Howell (ENG) 68-70-66, Brooks Koepka (USA) 70-68-66, Johan Carlsson (SWE) 65-67-72, Renato Paratore (ITA) 70-68-66, Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 73-64-67, Victor Dubuisson (FRA) 70-66-68, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 66-67-71, Justin Rose (ENG) 66-66-72, Shane Lowry (IRL) 66-66-72
205 - Andrew Johnston (ENG) 67-67-71, Marco Crespi (ITA) 69-68-68, Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN) 69-68-68, Chris Wood (ENG) 69-69-67, Richard McEvoy (ENG) 66-67-72, Seve Benson (ENG) 65-69-71, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 67-69-69, Daniel Berger (USA) 73-65-67, Romain Wattel (FRA) 70-68-67, Richard Finch (ENG) 65-68-72, Luke Donald (ENG) 69-67-69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (ESP) 67-66-72, Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 65-72-68, Y.E. Yang (KOR) 68-67-70, Michael Hoey (NIR) 70-65-70
