DP World Tour : Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic Leaderboard
Justin Harding will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic but he will have to hold off a host of Ryder Cup stars if he is to win a first Rolex Series title at Emirates Golf Club.
While many of those around him endured roller coaster rounds, the South African plotted his way to an impressive 71 to get to 12 under and lead the way from four-time Major Champion Rory McIlroy, who carded a 69 -10 as he also looks for a first Rolex Series win.
McIlroy's Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood was then at nine under alongside South African Erik van Rooyen, a shot clear of three more members of Europe's 2020 team in Paul Casey, Tyrrell Hatton and Bernd Wiesberger, England's Richard Bland, Pole Adrian Meronk and Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti.
European captain at Whistling Straits Pádraig Harrington and another team member in Lee Westwood then completed a top 12 that has seven Major titles and ten Rolex Series wins between them.
Harding has plenty of wins of his own, however, with two victories on the DP World Tour to go with seven on the Sunshine Tour and two on the Asian Tour, with six of those victories coming in the last four years.
He has also proven he can go low on a Sunday at Emirates Golf Club, carding a 63 en route to a top-ten finish in 2019, and he was not daunted by the challenge facing him.
"At the end of the day, I've just got to go out and keep doing what I'm doing and make a couple of birdies and shoot 70, 69, something like that," he said. "Make them shoot five or six under par and credit to them.
"I'm quite happy with it and go again tomorrow.
"I thought I played quite solid. It was a difficult day to be fair, some tough flags to get at. There were times when I didn't quite put the ball in play and I couldn't really go anywhere near them."
Lee Westwood was going great, he had recovered from a bogey at the first with birdies on the second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and tenth but it was to all change on the back nine.
Westwood bogeyed the 14th and made a triple on the last after hitting a poor tee-shot and then finding the water, while Hatton bogeyed the 12th and 14th and registered a double on the next to also fall back.
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