Wild day in the desert wind bunches up leader board in Dubai

When I left you earlier this morning Sergio was hanging onto a one shot lead as Tiger and Rory continued to battle back after disastrous early holes..

So first here's how they ended up and the key to today was the wind that got up late in the morning and was blowing from 15 -25 mph, completely drying out and hardening the greens and making club selection difficult.

T1 HANSEN, Anders -8 18 -1 69 68 71 - 208

T1 AIKEN, Thomas -8 18 +2 67 67 74 - 208
T1 MCILROY, Rory -8 18 +3 65 68 75 - 208

T4 VELASCO, Alvaro -7 18 -7 74 70 65 - 209
T4 QUIROS, Alvaro -7 18 -4 73 68 68 - 209
T4 ANDERSSON HED, Fredrik -7 18 -3 69 71 69 - 209
T4 RUMFORD, Brett -7 18 Par 69 68 72 - 209
T4 GONNET, Jean-Baptiste -7 18 Par 68 69 72 - 209
T4 WOODS, Tiger -7 18 Par 71 66 72 - 209
T4 GARCIA, Sergio -7 18 +3 67 67 75 - 209

T11 GALLACHER, Stephen -6 18 -1 70 69 71 - 210
T11 HOEY, Michael -6 18 +1 70 67 73 - 210

T13 KINGSTON, James -5 18 -5 72 72 67 - 211
T13 STRANGE, Scott -5 18 -5 72 72 67 - 211
T13 LAFEBER, Maarten -5 18 -4 71 72 68 - 211
T13 OTTO, Hennie -5 18 -3 72 70 69 - 211
T13 JACQUELIN, Raphaël -5 18 -3 72 70 69 - 211
T13 MARTIN, Pablo -5 18 -1 68 72 71 - 211
T13 WESTWOOD, Lee -5 18 Par 69 70 72 - 211
T13 HANSON, Peter -5 18 +1 69 69 73 - 211

All these guys are within 3 shots, this is bound to be a sprint to the wire tomorrow and with this many guys in contention, not to mention all the -4's a playoff is entirely possible, especially since the wind is supposed to blow again..

3 leaders at -8. Anders Hansen 71 is carrying the flag for Denmark this week after his countryman Thomas Bjorn won last week and he is a 40 year old veteran European tour player with 3 wins
Thomas Aiken 74, has been 3rd 13th and 6th in 3 of his last four events so this27 year old South African is knocking at the door
Rory McIlroy 75, still has the lead after he was +4 through 7 holes and played the rest in -1

Of the next group T4 look at the rounds of the 2 Spaniards, Alvaro Velasco, winner of the Challenge Tour last year was in the 3rd group out, beat the wind and posted his -7 65 and golf's longest hitter Alvaro Quiros,68 who was in contention right til the end last week in Qatar.

Also in that group Tiger who had the tale of 2 nines, +4 39 going out, then battling back in -3 33 including a chip in eagle at 10 and a curling 30 foot bomb at 18 and Sergio 75, who had a terrible break at the drivable par 4 17 when he thought he had driven the green, but his ball hit a skinny palm tree trunk and ricocheted into an unplayable for a double bogey 6.

Tiger and Sergio are paired together tomorrow

World #1 Lee Westwood shot a very steady 72 today, his best of the week and he is only 3 back

So tomorrow Tiger and Sergio are 3 groups ahead of Rory, so he will know what he needs to do when he comes to that driveable 17 and of course the dramatic par 5 18th over the water and Lee Westwood, who hardly made a putt over 6 feet is playing with his Ryder Cup partner Peter Hanson and he will be looking to post a score they can't catch..

20 players within 3 shots, what a day coming up and I don't think 18 holes will solve it !!

Sunday pairings

1 07:10 LEE Danny

1 07:19 BENSON Seve GONZALEZ Ricardo
1 07:28 DERKSEN Robert-Jan FINCH Richard
1 07:37 DONALDSON Jamie BROWN Mark
1 07:46 HORSEY David MCGRANE Damien
1 07:55 HAASTRUP Mark F KARLBERG Rikard
1 08:04 WEBSTER Steve EDFORS Johan
1 08:13 LEVET Thomas STERNE Richard
1 08:22 DAVIES Rhys JONZON Michael
1 08:36 LAWRIE Peter LEWIS (AM) Tom
1 08:45 DUBUISSON Victor KHAN Simon
1 08:54 HAMILTON Todd KAYMER Martin
1 09:03 JIMÉNEZ Miguel Angel BAIN Ross
1 09:12 FOSTER Mark SIEM Marcel
1 09:21 GOYA Tano BOURDY Grégory
1 09:30 CAÑIZARES Alejandro ROCK Robert
1 09:39 OLAZÁBAL José Maria CURTIS Ben
1 09:48 LYNN David CLARKE Darren
1 10:02 DRYSDALE David KRUGER Jbe
1 10:11 DYSON Simon WALL Anthony
1 10:20 CABRERA-BELLO Rafael WARREN Marc
1 10:29 RAMSAY Richie SINGH Jeev Milkha
1 10:38 DREDGE Bradley WOOD Chris
1 10:47 WILLETT Danny COLSAERTS Nicolas
1 10:56 WARING Paul DE VRIES Floris
1 11:05 FISHER Ross HAVRET Grégory
1 11:14 HANSON Peter WESTWOOD Lee
1 11:28 JACQUELIN Raphaël MARTIN Pablo
1 11:37 LAFEBER Maarten OTTO Hennie
1 11:46 KINGSTON James STRANGE Scott
1 11:55 HOEY Michael GALLACHER Stephen
1 12:04 WOODS Tiger GARCIA Sergio
1 12:13 RUMFORD Brett GONNET Jean-Baptiste
1 12:22 QUIROS Alvaro ANDERSSON HED Fredrik
1 12:31 VELASCO Alvaro MCILROY Rory
1 12:40 AIKEN Thomas HANSEN Anders

Bryan Angus