Greg Norman has echoed the sentiments of Adam Scott declaring the speed of the greens at The Lakes Golf Club – or rather lack thereof – makes it virtually impossible for him to make a charge for the leaders at the Australian Open.

Norman posted a respectable two-under 70 on Saturday to jump up to minus three but is a massive 13 shots behind leader Geoff Ogilvy heading into Sunday’s final round.

The two-time major winner said the painfully slow greens – the slowest he has ever played on in Australia – gives him little chance of posting the low-score he needs to make a charge up the leaderboard.

Organisers have been reluctant to have too much pace in the greens this week due to their undulating nature and the expected gusty winds.

Asked if he had a low-score in him heading into Sunday’s final round, Norman said: "Not with these greens, no. I don’t like them."

"They’re too slow for me. I’m a fast-green putter and I can’t get the right line or the speed with them, so you’re always fighting and you’ve got to hit the ball too hard to really get comfortable."

"They are very, very slow. They’re the slowest I’ve ever putted on in Australia, there’s no question about it."

"They’ve got so much undulation, they can’t get them too much quicker. If you got them any quicker, balls would be rolling into the water and balls rolling off the greens."

"So there’s just too much undulation there to really have tournament-speed greens."

Scott took a swipe the revamped Lakes layout on Friday, believing the lake of speed in the greens meant the course was simply not tough enough for a national championship.

While the heavy rain earlier in the week has been a factor in the greens being softer than normal, Norman agrees it’s simply not good enough for the strength of an Australian Open field.

"It’s a problem if you’re going to have a golf championship here," the five-time Stonehaven Cup winner said.

"For the members, it’s not. For the members, you’re going to have to keep them pretty slow for them or they’d never get around here."

"But obviously someone’s feeling good with it…they’re shooting 13 under."

"They’re just not my cup of tea."

The former world no.1 delighted the large galleries that followed him on moving-day by hitting two birdies to make the turn in two-under 33.

He had a setback with a double bogey at the par-four 12th before regrouping immediately with consecutive birdies at the par-four 13th and par-five 14th.

Norman was in pretty good touch throughout, not missing a fairway in his round and hitting 15 of 18 greens but had a modest 31 putts for the day.

Despite his impressive form and obvious love for the game, Norman said he will play just one more competitive tournament – his own Shark Shootout in Florida next week – before next year’s British Open in July.

The 55-year-old conceded he simply has too much on his plate to play more tournaments and plans to dedicate more time to his golf course design business

"I mean, I enjoy playing golf. I don’t enjoy practising," he said.

"Whenever I get out there to play, I still feel keen to do well. I try and I haven’t played a lot of golf, so that’s a good sign for me."

"I could be walking around out there and not care. I do still care.

"I just don’t want to put the time in at the driving range. It hurts the body too much."

Asked how many rounds of golf he would play before the Open at Royal St George’s, Norman said: "Maybe two a month, one a month, something like that."

"Unless there’s a real reason to go out there, I mean I’ll go out there and hit balls in my back yard and just chip and putt a little bit when I get the urge."

"I enjoy doing that at home quite honestly, it’s peaceful and you can mess around."

"But my green rolls at 13, so I was practising there last week because I actually thought these greens would be quick…I’ve got a stroke for a 13-stimp metre not a six and a half."