Woods shows his class
Tiger Woods shot a 67 to assume the joint leadership with Anders Hansen at 16 under after the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic.
The world number one cast a formidable shadow over Denmark’s Hansen and his fellow overnight leader Retief Goosen.
Hansen, though, held his nerve the better of the two as Woods loomed large, with the South African world number three dropping three shots on his back nine to card a disappointing 70.
Woods had been uncharacteristically wayward early on, regularly finding the rough and beyond as he attempted to close the two-stroke overnight gap to the leaders.
He bogeyed at eight, but picked up four shots on the back nine to keep the pressure on as the wind blew around the Emirates Golf Club.
Hansen slipped up just once, at the 12th, and birdied four times, but Goosen’s five birdies were offset by his three bogeys late on.
One shot back from Goosen at 14 under was a trio including two former winners of the Dubai Desert Classic.
Ernie Els, a three-time winner and the defending champion, shot a four under par round of 68 – marred by two dropped shots on the back nine – but the South African remained firmly in contention.
With him was Richard Green, the 1997 winner, and the Australian maintained his good form of the past two rounds with a solid 69.
The third man was Miguel Angel Jimenez, a model of consistency in his charge up the leaderboard.
The Spaniard picked up six shots and dropped none to card a six under par 66, the equal lowest score of the day.
Nick Dougherty had spoken of a new-found consistency and the confidence that flowed from it, but his round was erratic, if ultimately profitable.
The Liverpudlian dropped five shots, including a double bogey, and shot seven birdies to end on 13 under, from where he will believe he can challenge the leaders.
Ireland’s Peter Lawrie was at 12 under alongside Welshman Bradley Dredge.
Henrik Stenson, looking for back-to-back European Tour titles having won last time out at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters, needed to turn pars into birdies to climb the leaderboard.
And the Swede managed it, five times, but his bogey at the 15th left him at 11 under par and with some work to do on tomorrow.
With him was India’s Jyoti Randhawa and Paul Broadhurst, the runner up at Qatar, who shot a 67 that contained six birdies and an eagle, a score that could have been much lower except for three dropped shots.
Ulsterman Darren Clarke’s 70 puts him at 10 under, one clear of Paul Casey, of England, whose charge up the leaderboard failed to materialise with a 71. He will start tomorrow at nine under par.
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