Nov 10,2024
Shane Lowry has jumped into the top three at the Abu Dhabi Championship after a third-round 66 left him just three strokes off the lead heading into the final round.
Lowry, who won the event in 2019 six months before his Open Championship triumph, began the day 10 shots adrift of the leader, England's Paul Waring, but propelled himself into a contention after a blistering front nine which featured an eagle and four birdies.
His run was kick-started after draining a 36-foot eagle putt on the par-5 second hole and he followed with birdies at the fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth holes, amid a display of sumptuous iron play and superb putting.
Lowry's momentum stalled on the back nine as he failed to convert birdie chances at 12, 14 and 16, before dropping his first stroke after missing the green left at the par-3 17th. However, his round would finish on a high with a 24-foot birdie putt on the 18th to land on 15 under par.
"I'm happy with my score," he told Sky Sports afterwards. "It doesn’t seem like the leaders are going that far away.
"I think I’ll be within touching distance going into tomorrow, and if I can fire a low one tomorrow, I can be there or thereabouts."
The performance leaves Lowry in a four-way tie for third place alongside Tommy Fleetwood, Sebastian Soderberg and Thorbjoern Olesen.
Fleetwood, like Lowry, is a past champion, having won back-to-back in 2017 and 2018, albeit at the old venue of Abu Dhabi GC, before the tournament moved to Yas Links in 2022.
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It was a considerably less satisfying finish for Rory McIlroy, who double-bogeyed the final hole after pulling his drive into the water to drop back to 13 under.
McIlroy's third round was bookended by dropped strokes, having bogeyed the opening hole. Otherwise, the four-time major winner played well, with six birdies, half of them coming on par-5s.
His eventual score of 69 leaves him five off the lead, in a share of 13th, but with an outside chance heading into the final round.
"Untimely mistake just like yesterday on 17 and dug myself a little bit of a hole to get out of," McIlroy said. "But depending on what the leaders do, I can still go into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance."
A first or second place finish will see McIlroy secure the Race to Dubai - for the third year running and the sixth time in total - with a week to spare in the 2024 season.
Tom McKibbin also endured a messy finish, with bogeys on the final two holes, but is nestled inside the top 30, after his 68 lifted him onto 11 under.
The overnight leader Waring will retain the lead for Sunday but only just, after crashing to earth with an underwhelming one-over par 73.
The Englishman, whose only previous European Tour win came at the Nordea Masters in 2018, had posted a stunning 61 on Friday to open up a four-shot advantage at the halfway point.
But this was whittled down to one after a difficult day on Saturday, with just a solitary birdie at the second and subsequent bogeys at the fourth and 14.
Waring joked after his round: "You've got to have an average day, haven’t you?
"I’m a little bit disappointed – I felt like I could have put myself out of sight but four rounds of golf, you’re always going to have a bit of an iffy run of holes, an iffy round of golf. If at the beginning of the week you had given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow, I’d have snapped your hand off.
"I went into a bit of a defensive mode – you're playing to win golf tournaments and you have to manage your emotions and what’s going on around you.
"It’s a game of golf tomorrow in the sunshine – I’m looking forward to the challenge of it now. I feel like my bad golf is out of the way now."
He leads by single shot from his playing partner Denmark's Niklas Norgaard, who posted 69 on Saturday to sit on 17 under.
Belgium's Thomas Detry registered the low round on Saturday, opening with six birdies on the trot en route to a 62, sitting on 14 under, one stroke back from Lowry and co.
Additional reporting: PA
