So much happened while you were asleep last night at the WGC-HSBC Championship, here's what transpired in a wildly entertaining 3rd round as the rain and humidity continued to soften the Sheshan International course, leading to some very low scoring.
* I looked at my clock at 3.25am (est) as Adam Scott yanked his drive into the lush rough left of the fairway on the par 5 18th.. At 3.33 he laid up successfully to about 100 yards, all over water to the pin cut just 15 feet onto the green. At 3.44 he hit his wedge right over the pin. It stopped on the slope behind and spun back straight into the hole !!
That completed a birdie, birdie, eagle finish -3 69 -13 good for 3rd place, this after he looked out of it after a 7 on the 8th and a 6 on the 14th.
* Freddie Jacobsen made putts from all over the greens, 12', 15' 20' even a bomb from 35' on the 14th, he shot -5 67 and is at -16, 2 shots clear of little Louis Oosthuizen (68 -14). Jacobsen is playing as neatly as his new hair cut, he is leading in GIR, and when he does hit one crooked his scrambling is sublime.
It will need to be, look who are right on his heels..
* at -12 Rory McIlroy (65), Lee Westwood (67) and at -11 Graeme McDowell (67) who will all be paired together in the penultimate group. Rory is trying for the Chinese double having beat Anthony Kim last week at the Shanghai Masters, Westwood, steady as ever will become the all time leading money earner, overtaking Ernie Els who is well down the field, and GMac who has shed a few pounds is looking more like the man we were in awe of last year.
*as if these huge crowds needed more incentive, one of their own, 24 year old Zhang Xin-jun, ranked 959 in the world had the round of the day, a dazzling -8 64 and he is at -10.
* also at -10 is Paul Casey (70) who had the hot hand early after an eagle at the 8th. His round lost it's momentum on the 10th when he got pissed at someone in the crowd at the tee, took a double bogey, then finished with a bogey 6 at 18 when his approach spun back down the bank into the water.
* while I remember, Martin Kaymer (68) is also at -11 T6, and he certainly left a few shots out there, and had some hard luck, for example on 18 his wedge approach was right over the pin, but instead of spinning back down the slope to lie stone dead for birdie, it stayed up on top, you had to see the look of disgust on the young German's face.
* these events are called WGC, World Golf Championships and the idea is to get the best from all over the world together to compete at the highest level. That is exactly what we have here.
* Consider this, if Freddie hangs on to win, he will become the 10th different winner in the last ten WGC events, and the last 13 Majors have had 13 different winners. Some call it parity, there is no doubt that the demise of Tiger and the void it has left means the gameplan has changed completely. While we watch and wait to see who will emerge from this young generation, as Nicklaus, Palmer and Player did from theirs, it creates great excitement at these WGC events, and today's final round is set up to be a beauty.
* incidently at the caddy's awards night on Friday, an unofficial but hugely entertaining night for the loopers put on by their bosses (players) Stevie Williams, I would think after a few, said " make no mistake I wanted to shove it up his black arse**** !" which of course is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons. He has apologized on his Kiwi Caddie website, stressing there was no racial intent, and Tiger's people have called the comments "unfortunate"
for live scoring click http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011081/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y
For final round pairings click
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011081/teetimes/index.html
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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