Threes Company For Final Day
At eight under par Rory McIlroy now shares the lead with Anders Hansen and Thomas Aiken going into the final day of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic — that’s with the Irishman having dropped three shots on a third day of difficult weather conditions. Seven golfers linger just a shot behind in a bunched leader board with Sergio Garcia most surprising amongst them having at one stage led day three at eleven under and then nine under. Having fallen back to seven-under, Garcia joins Alvaro Velasco, Alvaro Quiros, Fredrik Andersson Hed, Brett Rumford, Jean Baptiste Gonnet and Tiger Woods all in a position poised for the final day’s charge. McIlroy’s round started dreadfully on three bogeys followed by a bogey on seven, he pulled a birdie back on nine but bogeyed again on 11 to birdie 12. His three day scores read 65-68-75. "I’ve still got a share of the lead going into the last round and it’s nice to have - I thought I actually hung on to the round pretty well its just the start that killed me," he said "It’s just very bunched at the minute and now a lot of the guys have a chance to win - but I have to be positive and say I’m one shot better or two shots better than a lot of the guys." Wind factor Blaming it on the wind, McIlroy said: "Looking at the guys who teed off this afternoon, Anders shot one under, but apart from that everyone was over par. It gives me encouragement knowing it was tough on everyone out there." Hansen (69-68-71) added, "It wasn’t pretty out there. I think none of us played that great but it’s very difficult. It’s gusty and blowing a lot and it’s blowing really hard. "It’s difficult, yeah, and the greens are so firm. It’s not easy, but I’m very happy with the score." Meanwhile, Aiken (67-67-74) said, "The wind was not just blowing, it was gusting and swirling from all different directions. And you really had to take time over your shots, because you can get over the ball and the wind can change direction all of a sudden and you’ve got to pull back. There’s a whole other day ahead of us and depending what the weather does tomorrow dictates what the scores will do. If it blows like this again, anything under par is a great score; and if it doesn’t, then who knows what’s going to happen." Perhaps the man lamenting the weather most was Garcia, having twice looked to have solidly overtaken McIlroy on the leaderboard with two birdies on three and five ruling out a bogey on one, to leave him 11-under. However, bogeys on 11 and 12 set him back to nine-under before a birdie bogey combination on 13 and 14 and a double bogey on 17 left him seven under. Scores 208 - Rory McIlroy (NIR) 65-68-75, Anders Hansen (DEN) 69-68-71, Thomas Aiken (RSA) 67-67-74 209 - Fredrik Andersson Hed (SWE) 69-71-69, Tiger Woods (USA) 71-66-72, Alvaro Quiros (ESP) 73-68-68, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (FRA) 68-69-72, Brett Rumford (AUS) 69-68-72, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 67-67-75, Alvaro Velasco (ESP) 74-70-65 210 - Stephen Gallacher (SCO) 70-69-71, Michael Hoey (NIR) 70-67-73 211 - Hennie Otto (RSA) 72-70-69, Scott Strange (AUS) 72-72-67, Peter Hanson (SWE) 69-69-73, Lee Westwood (ENG) 69-70-72, Pablo Martin (ESP) 68-72-71, Raphael Jacquelin (FRA) 72-70-69, Maarten Lafeber (NED) 71-72-68, James Kingston (RSA) 72-72-67 212 - Paul Waring (ENG) 73-68-71, Ross Fisher (ENG) 73-69-70, Floris de Vries (NED) 71-70-71, Danny Willett (ENG) 68-71-73, Gregory Havret (FRA) 72-71-69
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