Dougherty profits as Fasth slows
England’s Nick Dougherty suddenly found himself only one shot off the lead when Swede Niclas Fasth hit trouble at the BMW International Open in windy Munich today.
And the Swede’s problems also re-ignited Bernhard Langer’s hopes of capturing the one German title to have eluded him during his career.
Fasth, two ahead of compatriot Peter Hanson overnight, managed just 38 for the front nine.
And it could have been worse. Having failed to get up and down from a bunker on the short eighth, he found more sand off the tee at the 557-yard ninth and went from there into the hay left of the fairway.
A search did find the ball, but he had to take a penalty drop and in the end did well to get out with a bogey six.
While that 38 was still three better than Hanson, who never recovered from bogeying the first three holes, Dougherty was out in 35, making up for bogeys at the third and fifth with birdies at the second, sixth and eighth.
Europe’s top two players at the US Open last week – Fasth finished fourth and Dougherty seventh after coming through a qualifier first – were 10 under par and nine under respectively, while Portugal’s Jose-Filipe Lima shared second place with the Liverpool golfer.
Scot Alastair Forsyth was just one further back after a best-of-the-day 67 and alongside him were Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez and 47-year-old South African David Frost.
As for Langer, he had been furious with himself after dropping two shots in the last three holes for a 68.
But, with the wind picking up strength after he finished, he was not out of the hunt as he feared.
“I hate to finish bad,” he said. “You come off and you are mad at yourself. We work so hard for three hours and then you give it away in 30 minutes.”
What made it worse was that Langer considers Eichenried’s 319-yard 16th and long 18th the two easiest holes. But first he misjudged the wind and spun a pitch into the lake, then he hooked a drive into more water.
He had been 135th after an opening 76 on Thursday, but made the cut by the skin of his teeth with a second-round 66.
When he played the first 15 holes in a superb six under, he had moved into a tie for sixth place.
With the two dropped shots, he fell back into the pack and admitted: “I think they’ve cost me my chance. I just hit two wrong shots at the wrong time.”
Three hours later, however, he was back into a tie for eighth with playing partner Phillip Price, who also shot 68.
