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| January 29, 2006 | Sunday | Zilhaj 28, 1426 |
Els hits his stride, Stenson leads
DOHA, Jan 28: There was an overwhelming sense of deja vu at the two million dollar Qatar Masters on Saturday after Ernie Els produced his best round of the week to harbour hopes of a possible repeat victory.
The South African World No. 5, who took the title by a shot over Henrik Stenson last year, shot a third round 69 and was again engaged in a duel with the young Swede for supremacy going into Sunday’s final round.
At the 2005 Qatar Masters, Els trailed Stenson by five shots going into the final round, but a stunning 65 in extremely windy conditions gave him a one-shot victory, his second win in two weeks after the Dubai Classic triumph.
Then Els had warned at the end of the third round that he was still in contention especially if the wind picked up and the “Big “Easy” was relieved to see nature grant him his wish as the hopes of his closest rivals were blown away by the notorious “Shamal”.
On Saturday, Els once again gained from his vast experience by playing steady golf in cloudy and windy conditions to pick up three shots on the way to a five under par 211 to claw back into the reckoning.
Stenson, however, was still six shots ahead with an 11 under par 205 after his nine holes on Saturday with England’s Paul Broadhurst and Sweden’s Niclas Fasth two strokes adrift.
Els admitted that Stenson was best placed to win the top prize on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Vijay Singh, the highest ranked golfer ever to play in nine editions of the Doha event, shot a one over par 73 for an aggregate of 217 and trails overnight leader Stenson by a whopping 12 shots.
Leading scores:
205 - Henrik Stenson 66-68-71
206 - Paul Broadhurst 72-67-67, Niclas Fasth 68-70-68
207 - Richard Finch 68-68-71, Ricardo Gonzalez 66-69-72
209 - Robert Karlsson 71-69-69, Paul McGinley 69-70-70, Graeme Storm 68-71-70, Darren Fichardt 67-72-70, Nick Dougherty 69-67-73
210 - Thomas Bjorn 71-68-71
211 - Ernie Els 71-71-69, Thammanoon Srirot 71-69-71, Richard Sterne 72-68-71, David Lynn 70-70-71, Maarten Lafeber 71-68-72
212 - Damien McGrane 72-72-68, Peter Gustafsson 70-72-70, Chawalit Plaphol 67-74-71, Thongchai Jaidee 70-69-73, Prayad Marksaeng 70-67-75
213 - John Bickerton 73-72-68, Anthony Wall 74-71-68, David Howell 73-71-69, Andrew Buckle 71-72-70, Jeev Milka Singh 72-71-70, Rahil Gangjee 75-68-70, Thaworn Wiratchant 73-69-71, Chalr Schwartzel 68-72-73
LA JOLLA (California): Brandt Jobe shot a five-under-par 67 on Friday to maintain his lead heading into the third round of the 5.1 million-dollar PGA Buick Invitational.
Jobe began the tournament with a 65 on Thursday, but posted that score at the North Course, which is playing four shots easier than the South Course.
The switch didn’t seem to bother Jobe, who settled down after two bogeys in his first three holes to finish the day on 132.
He was shots ahead of South Africa’s Tim Clark (66) and Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik (67).
Tiger Woods had a chance to move within five shots of Jobe, but made three bogeys on the back nine of the South Course and carded a 68 for five-under 139.
He was seven shots behind Jobe and tied for 23rd overall.
Jobe hit nine of 14 fairways on the South Course, compared to four of 14 in the first round on the North.
Parnevik had his second consecutive round of 67 and doesn’t consider the North Course to be as soft as its reputation.
Parnevik had more trouble with the North than he did the South.
Woods began his second round on the South Course and flirted with the cut. He found the fairway again after changing his driver, going back to a club he used during practice in the offseason. In the first round, he hit one fairway. In the second round, Woods hit eight of 14.
Second-round scores:
132 - Brandt Jobe 65-67
134 - Tim Clark 68-66, Jesper Parnevik 67-67
136 - Steve Lowery 67-69
137 - Arjun Atwal 70-67, Craig Barlow 66-71, Daniel Chopra 71-66, Sergio Garcia 69-68, Nathan Green 67-70, Shigeki Maruyama 72-65, Rod Pampling 70-67
138 - Ryuji Imada 66-72, Thomas Levet 65-73, Jose Maria Olazabal 74-64
139 - Mathew Goggin 73-66, Tiger Woods 71-68
140 - Stuart Appleby 66-74, Henrik Bjornstad 68-72
141 - Brian Davis 68-73, Rory Sabbatini 70-71
142 - Aaron Baddeley 73-69, Luke Donald 75-67, Carl Pettersson 75-67, Hidemichi Tanaka 74-68
143 - Daisuke Maruyama 68-75.—Agencies
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