Pádraig Harrington roars into contention in Portugal with scintillating 63

Pádraig Harrington shot himself into contention at the Portugal Masters in Vilamoura with a superb round of 63 which included nine birdies.

That leaves the Dubliner one shot off the lead on 13 under par.

Harrington will now go out in the final group tomorrow alongside leaders Marc Warren and Andy Sullivan after defending champion Sullivan fired a bogey-free 61.

On another scoreable day at the Victoria course the three-time major champion got off to a flying start with four birdies in his first five holes to go out in 31.

Another birdie at the 10th was followed by a beautifully played belly wedge shot from the fringe at the 11th which tracked all the way into the hole and moved Harrington to six under for the round.

A slip-up at the 12th saw him drop a shot at the par five but with three more birdies on the way in he was signing for a 63 and was suitably pleased with both his play and the support in Portugal.

“I was holing a few putts so I was having fun,” he told Sky Sports.

“I felt I had a lot of support out there because there’s a lot of Irish people down here so I really enjoyed it.

“The longer putts I’m putting well, the shorter ones I’m still a little bit tentative on the lines. But mentally I’m very focussed and generally that means good things happen.

Meanwhile, Paul Dunne will face a nervous wait over the weekend as to whether he will keep his European Tour card for next season after missing the cut.

The 23-year-old carded five birdies in an impressive round of 67 on Friday but it was a first round of 73 that did the damage.

That left him with a total of two under par and two shots off the projected cut mark.

Dunne came into the week 101st in the Race to Dubai standings with the top 111 come Sunday evening (Sweden’s David Lingmerth is an affiliate member and therefore his placing is not counted) keeping their card for next season.

However his missed cut has seen him slip to 105th in the projected standings as a number of players below him made it to the weekend in Portugal.

Dunne has amassed a total of €260,793 in winnings this season and his fate now depends on how much money those below him in the standings can earn over the weekend.

All five players between Dunne and the fatefull 111th place in the projected standings have made it to the weekend and could all forseeably overtake the Greystones man.