Saturday delivered another perfect day for golf in the third round of the UBS Hong Kong Open at the Hong Kong Golf Club. There was barely a breath of wind to disturb the players’ concentration, and the sun shone warm without being so hot as to trouble those who have bulked up for extra power.
The course was at its best early in the morning. There are some beautiful holes, particularly in the front nine. The green backdrop of Kowloon’s hills interspersed with glass and steel high-rise creates some dramatic views, and the holes climb up and drop again in a series of undulations that provide endless character. There are raised tees, raised greens, and shots over valleys.
The fairways are lined with trees, mainly towering eucalyptus, which create a sense of atmosphere, tradition, and maturity, and provide a pleasing hint of what can be anticipated on many of the Chinese mainland’s newer parkland courses when they have had a chance to develop. Above all, the whole carries that sense of the tradition that is the soul of the game of golf, and the secret to which those competitions that aspire to become Asia’s ‘Majors’ must find the key.
Nature is overwhelmingly present in the shrubbery and flowers that complement the trees, in the birdsong that provides an agreeable accompaniment to the quiet murmur of the few spectators who have come out to watch the early starters, and in the squadrons of dragonflies and swarms of black butterflies that hover or flutter around the players as they line up their putts on the greens.
With twenty-one names within four of the lead at the start of play, the leaderboard buzzed like the swarming dragonflies as first one player and then another swooped with a birdie, or dropped a place or two with a bogey.
Encouragingly for the Asian support, the first to make a move among the front runners were China’s Liang Wenchong and Lin wen-tang of Taipei, who both birdied the first. Lin followed with another birdie on 3 while Chawalit Plaphol of Thailand was picking up a shot on 2 to become the first challenger to better the starting target of eight-under. Meanwhile, English duo Oliver Fisher and Oliver Wilson, two of the overnight leaders, both dropped a shot at the first, while Colin Montgomerie started with the relative disaster of a double-bogey.
But the idea that any player was going to break clear was soon confounded. Lin made another birdie on 7 to join the leaders. Francesco Molinari of Italy picked up two birdies to make progress. Plaphol bogeyed at 5 to lose his advantage. Montgomerie and Wilson both picked up birdies to keep well in touch…
This is how play continued throughout the day, but as the afternoon wore on, one or two subtle but perhaps important trends began to make themselves apparent.
Up ahead of the front runners, having started on four-under, a wily old fox called Bernhard Langer began to make a move. He had dropped a shot on the first, seemingly taking himself out of contention, but now he picked up four strokes in only three holes. He birdied 6, then eagled the par-4 seventh when he holed his approach, and followed that with a birdie on the difficult par-3 eighth, moving to seven-under and only a couple of strokes off the leaders.
His shots on 6 and 7 were extraordinary – in fairway bunkers from the tee on both holes, he played both with a 7-iron and knocked the first to two feet, and the second one into the hole.
Bernhard was gallant enough to acknowledge his good fortune in his press interview afterwards: “Maybe I’ll just aim for the fairway bunkers off the tee tomorrow,'" he quipped. “I might get round in 50…"
He swapped birdie and bogey on 10 and 12, but then another run of four birdies in four holes from 13 through 16 gave him an extraordinary final total of 63 for eleven-under, and the clubhouse lead.
Last week’s winner in Singapore, Jeev Milkha Singh, Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, and Francesco Molinari had all been in contention at the start of the day, and now they were right back in the center of the action with finishes of ten-under. Spain’s Pablo Arrazabal had seemed to be on the fringes at –4, but he recorded a 64 to join them. Lin wen-tang continued to make progress, and a birdie at the last made him the new clubhouse leader on twelve-under. Colin Montogmerie kept just in touch on nine-under.
In the meantime, many of the morning’s leaders were taking themselves out of contention. Plaphol, Louis Oosthuizen, and Oliver Fisher had started the day joint-leaders, but they were all dropping strokes and none finished better than five-off the lead – Oosthuizen, in particular, suffering a nightmare on the last green with three putts from ten feet to lose touch completely, while Plaphol needed two from even closer.
Johan Edfors, Marcus Fraser, and Richard Sterne had started on seven-under, but they too fell back.
The one name that has not been mentioned to date? Oliver Wilson. Yet again, he has put himself into the final grouping on the final day, but has he done enough yet to secure that elusive first win on the full tour?
I mentioned yesterday that Wilson’s partner Lauren had suggested that all he needs is a bit of luck – a really low score on day 3 to give himself some leeway for his final round. He didn’t quite manage that today, although he will start in the lead on his own at thirteen-under alongside Langer and Lin, after adding a round of 65 to go with a pair of 66s on the first two days.
Wilson agreed with the analysis: “”Definitely right. I just need a bit of luck here and there. You see some people win, and they get a bit of good fortune. That hasn’t happened to me yet, but if I can keep putting myself into position and the others do make a mistake, or if I get a bit of luck I’ll be right there. Obviously I want to try to get ahead of the field and get a bit of a lead, and it was important to do that today, to at least come out on top.”
What Wilson has done is to take out a lot of rivals, and keep at bay others like Iain Steel and David Gleeson, who came from well back with good scores today. At the start of play there were twenty within four strokes of him; tomorrow morning there will only be seven. I can hardly believe there will be a single person on the course tomorrow, player or spectator, who will grudge him his win if he can secure it. Rounds of 67, 68, 69 and 70 in Shanghai a fortnight ago left him a shot shy of victory; surely another 65 tomorrow to add to his scores of 66, 66, 65 this week will be sufficient.
Shot of the day: No question about this one. 144 yards to the target and a 7-iron in his hand. The ball traveled straight as an arrow towards the flag and rolled over the hole, coming to rest nine feet past. Forget Langer’s exploits – if you want to see real artistry with a 7-iron check out this reporter’s efforts on the UBS Full Swing Golf Simulator. I’m lying sixth in the ‘Closest to the Pin’ competition ahead of hundreds of lesser pretenders… watch for further news!
(China.org.cn by David Ferguson November 23, 2008)