Shane Lowry needs to "weather the storm" and accept that he will have "ups and downs" in his final round if he is to become Open champion, says former winner Padraig Harrington.
Harrington, who won back-to-back Opens in 2007 and 2008, was speaking on Sunday's Off The Ball to Joe Molloy and explained that Lowry can have a bad round and still win the tournament.
"Yesterday was spectacular. When you go out leading a tournament, let alone a Major, it's never easy to play aggressive and shoot a good score. He's done it three days in a row now. It's exceptional frontrunning.
"The beauty for Shane is that he has played so well that he's got himself in a position that there are many he ways he can win out there today.
"It's quite feasible that he could go out here and play badly today and win. It'd be lovely to think that he will go out and play every bit as well as yesterday and win in cantor and get to wave at the crowds and enjoy it, but that's one scenario. There are many others that could happen.
"There are many ways he could win this tournament and they don't all envision him having a happy day and a smiley day."
Harrington was also encouraged by Lowry's comments before his final-round that he had to accept there will be nerves during his final 18 holes.
"He is being realistic," Harrington told Molloy.
"You have got to accept you are going to feel under pressure. You are going to feel nervous and all the emotions. There's no point lying and saying you will go out and enjoy it because if you don't play well you won't enjoy it.
"There are some tough parts out there and he hasn't really had a bad run all week. Maybe on the second round, he dropped a few shots but he hasn't had things going against him so he will probably expect two or three holes where things will get a lot tougher.
"All he has to do is weather that storm because there is a great chance he could win this with four or five holes to go.
"He is more experienced now he should know what to expect. There will be ebbs and flows and ups and downs. It's likely that something will go wrong and he will have to deal with that."
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