Date: April 26, 2008
Author:

Aussie trio keeps Clarke in sight

Peter O&aposMalley, David Gleeson and Scott Hend remain in striking distance of overnight leader Darren Clarke heading into the final round of the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. Clarke leads on nine-under par after a third-round 67, six shots clear of the leading Aussie, O&aposMalley (72), who is in a tie for fifth, while Hend (71) and Gleeson (68) are another shot back on two-under. Clarke&aposs last success on the European Tour came at the WGC-NEC Invitational in 2003 and after his well-documented personal difficulties off the course in 2006 he has only fleetingly come close to adding an 11th victory on the Tour since. But Clarke has been in fine form at the Shanghai Pudong Golf Club, improving on each round&aposs score and returned to the clubhouse with a five-under-par 67 to go nine under overall. It gives him a one-stroke advantage over Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen. England&aposs Robert Dinwiddie is two shots adrift of the lead after the European Tour rookie carded a six-under-par 66 on Saturday. Lin Wen-tang of Chinese Taipei is four strokes off the lead at five under par overall after carding a three-under-par 69. O&aposMalley, who had two birdies and two bogeys in his round, is then in a pack of four players at three-under which also includes Michael Lorenzo-Vera, Chinese amateur Hu Mu and India&aposs Digvijay Singh. Hend and Gleeson share ninth with South Africa&aposs Retief Goosen, Italy&aposs Francesco Molinari, India&aposs Jeev Milka Singh and England&aposs Miles Tunnicliff. New Zealand&aposs Mark Brown is best of the rest of the Australasians on one-under, while Marcus Fraser is on even par along with compatriot Scott Strange. Adam Blyth, Greg Norman and 2005 US Open winner Michael Campbell are one-over. Aussie Marcus Both and Kiwi Richard Lee are three-over, while Scott Barr is well off the pace at six-over. Third Round results BMW Asian Open, Shanghai (par 72) -9: Darren Clarke (Northern Ireland) 71 69 67 -8: Robert-Jan Derksen (NED) 70 69 69 -7: Robert Dinwiddie (ENG) 70 73 66 -5: Lin Wen-tang (Chinese Taipei) 71 71 69 -3: Digvijay Singh (India) 74 72 67, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (France) 75 69 69, Hu Mu [ (China) 73 69 71, Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 67 74 72 -2: David Gleeson (Australia) 73 73 68, Francesco Molinari (Italy) 71 75 68, Jeev Milkha Singh (India) 68 76 70, Scott Hend (Australia) 69 74 71, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 72 70 72, Miles Tunnicliff (England) 71 70 73 -1: Rory Mcilroy (Northern Ireland) 73 73 69, John Bickerton (England) 71 75 69, Paul Broadhurst (England) 71 73 71, Chris Rodgers (England) 71 73 71, Mark Brown (New Zealand) 75 67 73, Liang Wen-chong (China) 71 71 73, Zhang Lian-wei (China) 70 69 76