Waring holds on to Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship lead

Tournament: Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Race to Dubai: Tournament 43 of 44
DP World Tour Play-Offs: Tournament 1 of 2
Rolex Series: Tournament 4 of 5
Venue: Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Prize Fund: US$9,000,000
Hashtag: #ADGolfChamps #RolexSeries

Round Three Report

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.


Player Quotes

Paul Waring: 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.

Niklas Nørgaard: 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 this tournament, and now I feel more at home.

Shane Lowry: To be honest the first two days, I got off to a really average start. So just get off to a better start today. I kind of kicked on the front nine and then got a bit stale on the back nine.

I’m happy with my score. 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.

‘ve been driving the ball really good. My iron play has been great. You know, I probably haven’t been holing as many putts as I would like. I feel like I’m putting all right, hitting good putts, not missing the shorter ones. And I feel like, a few putts drop, I can be dangerous.

In saying that, I’ve 12 new clubs in the bag this week. I have a new driver and new set of irons. What’s going on before me, I haven’t really thought about. I’ve just been trying to get used to this, and it’s going very well so far. Hopefully it keeps going that way.

Tommy Fleetwood: It was tough. You could feel the greens starting to get really fast. Struggled with the pace, really. Went through a period where I felt like I couldn’t get the ball inside four or five feet.

Had a few 3-putts that were down to a bit of pace on some long putting but actually feel like I played really well. Just started playing like a different golf course towards the end. I don’t know, I sort of glanced at the leaderboard. I don’t know if the scores reflect that or just me that found it really hard. It’s not too bad. 

Of course I got off to a good start and I felt like I played really well. So could have been better but at the same time, maybe one of those days where you hang in there when it’s not going your way towards the end, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Round Three Scores 

 198 P WARING (ENG) 64 61 73, 
 199 N NORGAARD (DEN) 65 65 69, 
 201 S LOWRY (IRL) 69 66 66, S S?DERBERG (SWE) 66 67 68, T OLESEN (DEN) 63 67 71, T FLEETWOOD (ENG) 62 68 71, 
 202 T DETRY (BEL) 72 68 62, N H?JGAARD (DEN) 71 65 66, R MACINTYRE (SCO) 65 68 69, F LAPORTA (ITA) 64 69 69, T HATTON (ENG) 64 68 70, U COUSSAUD (FRA) 68 64 70, 
 203 M JORDAN (ENG) 66 70 67, J LUITEN (NED) 67 69 67, A SULLIVAN (ENG) 69 67 67, R MCILROY (NIR) 67 67 69, J VEERMAN (USA) 63 67 73, 
 204 J NIEMANN (CHI) 66 72 66, A FITZPATRICK (ENG) 66 72 66, J SVENSSON (SWE) 70 66 68, M LEE (AUS) 69 67 68, M SIEM (GER) 65 71 68, A SADDIER (FRA) 67 68 69, R MANSELL (ENG) 72 63 69, A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP) 67 67 70, T LAWRENCE (RSA) 67 66 71, M WALLACE (ENG) 67 65 72, 
 205 A ROZNER (FRA) 73 65 67, T MCKIBBIN (NIR) 68 69 68, 
 206 R H?JGAARD (DEN) 66 72 68, B STONE (RSA) 66 70 70, K NAKAJIMA (JPN) 67 68 71, E FERGUSON (SCO) 68 67 71, L CANTER (ENG) 64 68 74, 
 207 A MERONK (POL) 71 72 64, R HOSHINO (JPN) 70 68 69, D MICHELUZZI (AUS) 69 68 70, A DEL REY (ESP) 70 66 71, J SMITH (ENG) 68 67 72, B WIESBERGER (AUT) 68 66 73, 
 208 J GUERRIER (FRA) 73 69 66, S CROCKER (USA) 68 73 67, G MIGLIOZZI (ITA) 68 71 69, C JARVIS (RSA) 70 68 70, R LANGASQUE (FRA) 67 70 71, N ELVIRA (ESP) 69 68 71, A HIDALGO (ESP) 67 68 73, A OTAEGUI (ESP) 66 69 73, Y PAUL (GER) 67 68 73, 
 209 D BRADBURY (ENG) 72 69 68, F LACROIX (FRA) 69 72 68, M BALDWIN (ENG) 69 70 70, J SCHAPER (RSA) 69 70 70, 
 210 S SHARMA (IND) 71 73 66, A COCKERILL (CAN) 69 71 70, D FRITTELLI (RSA) 70 70 70, G GREEN (MAS) 69 71 70, J CAMPILLO (ESP) 71 68 71, J WINTHER (DEN) 71 67 72, 
 211 G FORREST (SCO) 73 73 65, D RAVETTO (FRA) 71 70 70, J DEAN (ENG) 71 67 73, 
 212 M MANASSERO (ITA) 70 74 68, 
 213 C SYME (SCO) 71 71 71, A SCOTT (AUS) 71 67 75, 
 214 S BAIRSTOW (ENG) 69 74 71, C HILL (SCO) 78 64 72, 
 217 J ROSE (ENG) 69 74 74, 
 218 D VAN DRIEL (NED) 70 74 74, 
 221 D BROWN (ENG) 69 76 76, 

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