Graeme McDowell leads Saudi International despite slow play warning

Graeme McDowell put a slow play warning from the European Tour behind him during a mid-round interview on Friday to race into a narrow one-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Saudi International. 

McDowell admitted to his rhythm being "upset" by a slow play warning he received by the European Tour on day two. 

"It upset my rhythm for a couple holes," said McDowell. "Tim Barter is out there interviewing for Sky Sports and he asked me to do an interview walking up the fairway, which I said 'yes' to.

"I took an extra few seconds and he [official] gave me a monitoring penalty, which puts me officially on the clock at that point.

"It upset my rhythm for a couple holes. I was trying to play too fast. I was disappointed he didn't give me a little bit more room for error on the situation, but hey... we've got to play faster, simple as that."

Should McDowell be given another slow play warning on Sunday, he will be docked one stroke. 

The European Tour brought a new slow play policy into the reckoning for 2020. 

Any player taking longer than 40 seconds to play a shot will be given a slow play warning, or 50 seconds if they are first to play in the group.

McDowell, typically a great player in the breeze, put all that behind on "moving day" Saturday with superb round of 66 in difficult windy conditions to progress to 12-under par for the tournament. 

He takes a narrow one-stroke lead into the final round over France's Victor Dubuisson. 

Bryson DeChambeau picked up a slow play warning in the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic last week, and it came just before the American finished his tournament with four consecutive bogeys to fall out of the lead and back into the pack.