Fisher holds surprise lead in China
Surrey’s Ross Fisher will take a one-shot lead over former England team-mate Oliver Wilson into the final round of the Volvo China Open.
Fisher carded a third round 68 for an 11 under par total of 205 at Shenzhen Golf Club, while Wilson recorded a 71 to lie joint second with overnight leader Chawalit Plaphol of Thailand.
China’s Lian-Wei Zhang delighted the locals with a 66 on his home course to finish one stroke further back on nine under, with English duo Barry Lane and Miles Tunnicliff and Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen another shot adrift.
Fisher, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Tuesday, is playing in only his 11th full European Tour event.
He finished 18th on the Challenge Tour in 2005, enough to guarantee him entry into a number of tournaments this season, but then opted to attend the qualifying school anyway and finished 14th to earn full playing privileges.
“This is very uncharted territory,” he admitted after four birdies in his last seven holes. “I played a few tour events last season which has been a massive help to me, just to be out there competing with the big boys.
“I’ve won a few events but I don’t think anything can compare to this. It was pretty cool to see my name on the leaderboard yesterday when I finished and to see it on top now is an awesome feeling. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
Fisher may be a virtual unknown but Wilson revealed he was not surprised to be competing against his former team-mate for the £126,000 first prize.
“He hits it an absolute mile and has a lot of talent,” said the Mansfield professional, who had 17 pars and a solitary birdie after missing several putts from inside three feet.
“He has always done well at every level he played and has gone on to do very well since we played together at amateur level for England.”
Wilson, a member of the victorious Walker Cup team in 2003, added: “I thought someone would make a charge today so I’m very pleased to only be one shot back despite only shooting a 71.
“It was a little bit frustrating, I couldn’t get the ball to the hole and I’ve struggled all week with the pace of the greens. But hopefully I was saving them all up for tomorrow and I can be in contention coming down the stretch.”
Pre-tournament favourite Paul Casey looked like getting right back in contention for his second victory of the year in China, but bogeys at the 16th and 17th left the world number 61 five off the lead on six under.
“There were a lot of shots left out there,” admitted the world number 61. “I could not hole any putts and always seemed to kill my momentum when I got going.”
Lane carded a 67 which featured an eagle and six birdies, the last of those coming on the 18th where he chose to chip his third shot from on the vastly undulating putting surface.
The 45-year-old, playing his 542nd European Tour event, explained: “It was a little tricky there. I thought I could putt it but if I didn’t catch it just right it could finish back pretty much where I was.
“I would love to play courses like this more often as you have to hit it in exactly the right place. On some of the holes you have to leave it short of the flag to have a straight putt.”
Defending champion Stephen Dodd – whose win last year sparked his rise from 229th in the world to his current position of 77th – carded a disappointing 74 to drop back to level par for the tournament.
Dodd, who flew to China after winning the World Cup with Bradley Dredge on Sunday when the final round at Vilamoura was washed out, carded three birdies but also had three bogeys and double bogey.
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