Sergio Garcia on Saturday made two birdies in his final two holes in darkness to open up a three-shot lead over Henrik Stenson in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
The Spaniard first drove the par-four 17th green and two-putted, and then hurried to the 18th tee in an effort to complete his round.
He only had the lights from the grandstands to guide him when he pitched his third shot to six feet, and then made the birdie putt.
Photo: AP
The World No. 15, who is yet to record a top-10 finish in the tournament, despite playing it seven times before, shot a four-under-par 68, making all of his score on the back nine after completing the front nine on par with a bogey on the first and a birdie on the second.
Stenson, who was playing a group ahead of Garcia’s, also drained a four-footer for birdie in near darkness for a round of five-under-par 67.
Garcia goes into the final day of the US$2.5 million European Tour event at 16-under-par 200, with Stenson on 203. England’s Ian Poulter (67) and Thailand’s Prom Meesawat (68) were tied third at 205.
England’s Tyrrell Hatton earlier shot the low round of the day — a seven-under-par 65 — to climb to a tie for seventh place at 207, one shot behind the US’ Peter Uihlein (69) and South Africa’s George Coetzee (70).
“At the end it was very, very dark, I’ll tell you that. When we were walking on 17, I thought, well, it will probably be a little dark, but not too bad, but then it gets dark very, very quickly here,” said Garcia, who made five birdies and a bogey on the back nine. “Couldn’t really see much on the last three shots. Pretty much couldn’t see the ball land and the last putt was a little bit of a feel and a little bit of the read that George gave me, and I’m very fortunate to be able to make it.”
“Yeah, it was a nice round. Obviously it wasn’t easy, a little shaky here and there at the beginning, but back nine was great. A lot of good shots, a lot of good putts,” he added.
Stenson made four birdies on his back nine.
“It was nice that we managed to finish. It was important, because it means we don’t have to get up early in the morning and get a few hours of sleep more,” Stenson said. “I am looking forward to tomorrow. Make a couple of quick birdies and try and put some pressure on Sergio.”
The last group that started from the 10th tee was still out on the golf course when it became too dark to continue and were to return at 7:30am to complete their round.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier