Paul Waring (198, -18) has seen his five-shot lead reduced to a single shot after the third round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. It was almost impossible to repeat a feat like the one on Friday, a day in which he scored a 61 and confessed that he hit the best shot of his life in the 18th, but the Englishman defended his lead as best he could. He played over par (73), which opened the door to a list of very dangerous players.
Classification
One shot away is Niklas Norgaard, a golfer who won the British Masters a few weeks ago and with very good results since then, to the point that he is within reach of winning one of the 10 PGA Tour cards offered by the DPWT. The Dane is followed by Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Thorbjorn Olesen and Sebastian Soderberg, tied for third place with 15 under par and 201 in their total.
Shane Lowry has chained two consecutive 66s and has already entered the fight for the first playoff of the DP World Tour. On the other hand, Rory McIlroy (203), who was also on the rise on the day of the move, ran into water in the 18th and his comeback was ruined. The Northern Irishman finished with double bogey on a par 5 where he had made birdie in the previous two rounds. On Friday he had made a triple bogey on the 17th and these two erratic finishes have robbed him of many chances of victory. “Luckily the leaders haven’t escaped,” Rory declared relieved.
The best of the day was Thomas Detry, who scored a 62 and touched that course record that Waring made on Friday. Regarding the Spanish, the best classified is Alfredo García-Heredia with 204 hits overall. Alejandro del Rey is at 207, while Nacho Elvira, Ángel Hidalgo and Adrián Otaegui are at 208; Jorge Campillo, 210.
