McDowell and Harrington ride on as Spieth shows up in Texas; Sharvin seeking pay-day in Jordan

Graeme McDowell

Graeme McDowell is six strokes behind leader Si Woo Kim as he chases back to back wins and a Masters place in the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio.

The Portrush star (39) made an eagle and three birdies in a three-under 69 to share 15th place on six-under as Jordan Spieth showed some promising Masters form.

The Texan holed out for a late eagle two to grab an early share of the clubhouse lead, eventually finishing the day in a six-way tie for second.

The three-time major winner holed out from 113 yards for a three at the eighth, his 17th, and carded a second successive 68. Scores

“That holed-out wedge kind of made up for those ones that missed the greens,” said Spieth, who hit just 11 fairways in the first two rounds. “But all in all I think I progressed today from yesterday and that's all I'm looking forward to do day to day. “

He added: ”I've probably hit the least amount of fairways of anyone near the top of the leaderboard, but I started to really figure out why and a good fix for it. I felt more in control of the driver even when I missed fairways there on the back nine. So I'm going to just try and work on that a little bit on the range. Clearly if I hit more fairways, right now I feel good about the rest of my game.”

He ended the day in a chasing pack with Corey Connors, Harold Varner III, Adam Schenk, Kyoung-Hoon Lee and Rickie Fowler on eight-under-par as Kim, who has already qualified for the Masters, shot a second consecutive 66 to lead by four strokes on 12-under.

Pádraig Harrington made the one-under on the mark in typical fighting fashion after a recovering from a slow start to chisel out a one-under 71.

Europe's Ryder Cup skipper double bogeyed the par-five second and bogeyed the fourth before mixing four birdies with just one more dropped shot coming home.

Seamus Power missed the cut, however, carding a five-over 77 after a poor day to finish on two-over.

Meanwhile, Ardglass' Cormac Sharvin was tied for seventh heading into the final round of the innovative Jordan Mixed Open where Challenge Tour, Ladies European Tour and Staysure players are teeing it up together.

He shot a two-under 70 to get to six-under par as Meghan MacLaren shot a  second successive 65 to lead by two strokes from the Netherlands' Daan Huizing on 14-under. Scores

Michael Hoey was joint 35th on two-under after a 73 but Brendan McGovern shot 72 and Robin Dawson a 79 to miss the level par cut by ten strokes.