Waring holds on to Abu Dhabi C’ship lead as McIlroy struggles

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Paul Waring saw his comfortable overnight lead cut to a single shot heading into the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The Englishman started the day five clear but a one-over 73 left the door ajar for the chasing pack. Waring’s 18-under-par total leaves him one clear of Niklas Nørgaard, with Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Thorbjørn Olesen and Sebastian Söderberg tied for third on 15 under.

Waring found a bunker with his opening tee shot and had to scramble par from eight feet at the first, but looked to have settled down as he birdied the par-five second and hit his tee shot to eight feet at the short fourth.

However, he ran his birdie attempt five feet past and missed the return, before missing birdie putts at the next nine holes. Finding sand off the tee at the 14th proved costly as he failed to save par from 15 feet.

Waring had produced the shot of his life with a fairway wood to inside four feet at the last on Friday, but 24 hours later ended up in a greenside bunker and had to settle for a 15th par of the day.

Nørgaard dropped his first shot of the week at the ninth in his round of 69, and admitted that he now feels at home in events of this stature as he chases his second DP World Tour title and first on the Rolex Series.

It was a mixed bag for Fleetwood, who recorded four birdies and three bogeys in his round of 71, as he aims to take a third Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship title following his victories in 2017 and 2018.

Major winner and 2019 Champion Lowry got off to a fast start with an eagle on the second and was six under at the turn before recording seven consecutive pars and finishing bogey, birdie to sign for a 66.

Meanwhile Thomas Detry recorded the low round of the day, opening with six birdies in a row and adding four more after the turn in his round of 62, one short of Waring’s course record on Friday.

Waring said: “You’ve got to have an average day, haven’t you. A little bit disappointed. I felt like could I have really moved forward today and put myself out of sight.

“But four rounds of golf, you’re always going to have an iffy run of holes, iffy round of golf, whatever you want to call it.

“If beginning of the week you’d given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow I’d snatch your hand off. I’m trying to remain positive that I’m still in the lead, and looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.

“Just wasn’t at my best today. Putter felt a little bit jittery in total honesty. I thought the greens were a foot and a half quicker.

“They were just breaking a bit more than what I was reading the first few days, a bit dryer, a bit firmer, and I just struggled on them a little bit today.

“I know we were talking about making a lot of birdies prior to this, but you’re play in so many golf tournaments and that sort of thing you, and just have to manage your emotions and what’s going on around you.

“I felt like I did that quite well but like I said, I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t make a couple of birdies coming in and increase my lead a little bit.

It’s a game of golf tomorrow, isn’t it. Game of golf in the sunshine. I’ll be playing with Niklas again, great lad, good friend of mine. Looking forward to the challenge of it now.

“I feel like my bad golf is out of the way now and I can sort of try and free wheel as much as I can tomorrow and add them all up tomorrow afternoon and see where we all lie.

Nørgaard said: “Feeling good because the game was not nearly as good as the first two days. So I definitely had to be patient and made my first bogey all week on hole 9 which annoyed me quite a bit. But just kind of didn’t try to force birdies or anything. Just tried to do the same thing over and over again, and I’m very satisfied with today.

“I’ve been home for two weeks and done some quality work at home and I just have a lot of confidence from working well at home, and that’s what I’m kind of bringing into this week.

“I can draw so much (from the experience of winning this year). Because today playing in the final group I would have been so nervous if I had not tried that before. It’s funny how it takes you, because a year ago, I really felt like a guest at tis tournament, and now I feel more at home.