By David Ferguson and Li Muqun
For three days the weathermen have been predicting rain on the Barclays Scottish Open, no doubt on the well-tried basis that it will inevitably rain in Scotland, and in particular if someone is trying to play a game of golf.
But so far there has been no trace of the wet stuff apart from a number of ponds and ditches around the course that have eagerly gathered up the balls of the wayward, and Saturday was no different. The anticipated downpour failed to materialize, and many of the players duly made hay in the sunshine.
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A rare cloud peeks over the nearby mountains in an attempt to prove the forecasters right [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
Another feature of the week so far has been that the early bird has taken the worm – the afternoon starters have struggled to match the scores of those who have teed off in the morning hours.
Jean Francois (Jeff) Lucquin was one of the early starters on the third day. Lying at one-under, a distant ten strokes off the lead, he was not in the best of condition when he stepped up to the first tee. The previous evening he had succeeded in stepping over a computer cable in his hotel room, only to smack his knee on the corner of a lurking coffee table.
The pain was so bad that he had been forced to seek medical attention, and he was unable to warm up properly before his round. In the course of the first eight holes of his round he did manage an eagle on 3, but this was offset by bogeys on 2 and 7.
Then from hole 9 he went on something of a birdie spree – the best run of his professional career, in fact. He ran up a total of six in a row through 14, which took him to seven-under, only four strokes off the lead. By the time he reached the 17th tee he was limping like an exaggerated caricature of Long John Silver, but he almost birdied the hole with an immense putt from the back of the green right to the flag at the front.
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An unusual perspective on golf - Jean Francois Luquin's injured knee [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
But he finally cracked on the last, pushing his drive into a cruelly-steep bunker bank that must have made the shot a torture, and understandably pulling his recovery into the rough on the other side of the fairway. He was unable to get up and down, and so dropped back to six-under.
It was a creditable effort, and at seven-under he might even have entertained hopes of competing on the final day if his knee holds up, and if the pattern of the first two days had been repeated, and the afternoon starters had struggled.
We will have to wait and see how his knee-trouble resolves itself, but his hopes of high scores from the rest of the field were not to be realized.
Another to start from a fair way back was Lee Westwood on three-under. He wasted no time in setting about the course, and by the 12th hole he had only two pars to his name – the other ten holes having yielded nine birdies and one bogey. By that point he was sharing the lead in the tournament at eleven-under – the front-runners not yet having started their rounds – and with the birdiable 13th and 14th to come he was entertaining ideas of a very low score indeed.
"Just ask my playing partners, or the caddies who watched me yesterday. That could have been a 61 or 62. Well, today I was thinking 59 on the 13th tee. I kept hitting it close – three, four, five feet all through the round. The longest putts I holed were about fifteen feet on 4 and 12. Even with the bogey on 5 I had nine birdies in the first twelve holes, and two great birdie chances to come."
Unfortunately for Lee it was not to be. He could only par the 13th, and then on the short and tempting par-4 14th he went for the green but found water off the tee. He could not get up and down and a shot was gone, taking with it the chance of a very rare feat – a sub-60 round.
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Time seems to stand still as Westwood drops after hitting water on 14. He would go on to drop a shot as well. [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
"Just unfortunate," he said. "We had to wait on the 13th tee – felt like we had to wait about ten minutes there, and then had to wait another ten minutes on the next tee. These sort of things just break your rhythm, especially when you are playing those kind of high risk/high reward holes."
But the Englishman is very much back in contention. Having finished at eleven-under in joint sixth place he will start his final round in the last group but one. And just as importantly for him, the good form he has shown this week as well as last week in France augur well for his chances at Turnberry in The Open next week.
By the time that all the players were out on the course it was clear that more low scores were in prospect, and not necessarily from those at the top of the leaderboard. England's David Lynn went one better than Jeff Luquin with a 65, and climbed 46 places as a result.
Overnight leader Retief Goosen was very quickly into his stride, and consecutive birdies on 3 and 4 took him to thirteen-under, and threatened to become the foundation of an unassailable lead.
But at least one rival had other ideas. Think of the name of the best of the current crop of Spanish players, and Fernando Gonzalez Castano is not necessarily the one that will spring most immediately to mind. This is as it should be, as the name is actually Gonzalo Fernandez Castano. Or at least I believe it is, although when writing about Gonzalo it may be worth giving yourself one or two options.
Whatever the case, Gonzalo has been in very good form this season. Although he is not yet close to being mentioned in the same breath as Garcia or Jiminez, and he is surrounded by the exploits of great past champions like Olazabal and Ballesteros, he now has four Tour victories to his name and seems very clearly to be moving out of the pack of chasing players and into a smaller group that competes regularly rather than occasionally for the serious tournaments.
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Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano gives all his attention to his birdie putt on 14, but it was another shortish one that got away. [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
Gonzalo opened his round with three consecutive birdies on the first three holes. That took him from seven-under to ten-under. Another followed on the 9th, and then three more on 11, 13, and 15 to give him a fault-free round of 64 and a total that would ultimately prove to deliver the third round lead.
"I have to say, that’s probably among the best rounds I have ever played. I've never struck the ball like that before. But it's a funny game. This morning on the driving-range I couldn't hit a shot. And then you go out there and you play the best golf of your life. It's a strange thing, sport."
Importantly, he no longer feels intimidated by finding himself in the lead at this level of competition. "You just have to see the names lined up behind me," he said. "It's quite scary. But I love to be in that position. I've been there before, and I want to be in contention on Sundays. If you want to be the best, you have to play against the best. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's round."
Gonzalo was honest enough to admit to an ongoing concern about his short putting. He acknowledged that he is not feeling comfortable over the knee-tremblers – the four or five-footers for birdie or par. He felt he had missed a couple of good chances to score even lower, and certainly the putt that he missed for birdie on the 14th is the sort that any professional would always want to hole. It is vital that he overcome this hurdle if he is to go on and reach the level of which he appears capable.
Following his early birdies on 3 and 4 overnight leader Goosen added another on 9 to go to fourteen-under. But a setback followed when he bogeyed ten, just as Castano was moving to fourteen-under. That took Goosen back to second place, and further trouble followed on the par-5 13th.
He followed Adam Scott left of the fairway, but while Scott's ball plugged in a lateral ditch, Goosen's flew over it and into waist high rough, where the determined efforts of an army of hunters failed to locate it. The South African did well to get down in four with his provisional ball and drop only one stroke, but that left him two behind the new leader. He remedied the situation with a birdie on the par-3 17th to get back to thirteen-under and trail Castano by only one stroke.
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Not even an army of enthusiastic helpers could find Retief Goosen's ball on 13. He did well to escape with a bogey. [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
"Obviously, the weather is going to change," he said. "So it could be a very interesting day tomorrow. Let's see what's going to happen. I think tomorrow is going to be more like what we expect round here, a bit of rain and wind, so the course is going to play totally different. Maybe I can come from behind this time – the last time I lost it from the front, maybe this time will be different."
Almost inevitably, Goosen and Castano will be joined in the last group tomorrow by Germany’s Martin Kaymer. Last week's winner of the Open de France seems to be unable to keep out of contention these days. His three rounds this week of 69, 65, and 66 have seen him climb steadily up the leaderboard. To win two top tournaments in consecutive weeks is a real tough test, but Kaymer is entitled to go into tomorrow's final day full of confidence.
There were other significant moves on the leaderboard. Adam Scott, Soren Hansen, Richard Green and Kenneth Ferrie all lost ground, but the young Welshman Jamie Donaldson leapt 14 places up the leaderboard with a 65 to join Soren Kjeldsen in fourth place.
Brian Gay of the USA also carded a 65 and moved up nineteen places. He will tee off with Scotland's Martin Laird in 8th place. They will be joined by Marcus Fraser.
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No one is likely to describe Martin Kaymer as an inflexible German - his athletic action has once more brought him into contention on the final day. [David Ferguson China.org.cn] |
Ernie Els, Raphael Jacquelin, and Geoff Ogilvy also moved to eight-under. Six strokes is a big gap to make up, but if tomorrow's conditions are tough, and especially if they are variable, one of this trio – particularly the two Major-winners - might just be in with a chance.
Leaders:
199 - Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Sp)
200 - Retief Goosen (SA); Martin Kaymer (Ger)
202 - Jamie Donaldson (Wales); Soren Kjeldsen (Den)
203 - Marcus Fraser (Aus); Lee Westwood (Eng)
204 - Brian Gay (USA); Martin Laird (Sco)
205 - Ernie Els (RSA); Raphael Jacquelin (Fra); Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)
Six players on 206
(China.org.cn July 12, 2009)
