Date: February 15, 2009
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Blyth in pole position

Australian Adam Blyth put himself into position to record his first win on either the European or Asian Tour after carding a six-under-par 66 to take a narrow lead into the final round of the Maybank Malaysian Open. Blyth missed an opportunity to play in Saturday&aposs final flight after finishing with a double bogey in his second round but he bounced back superbly with an eagle and six birdies on Saujana Golf and Country Club&aposs Palm Course to storm to the top of the leaderboard. The 27-year-old moved to 14-under through 54 holes to hold a one-shot advantage over Alexander Noren of Sweden (69) and China&aposs Liang Wen-chong (67). “I&aposm very happy,” said Blyth, from Brisbane. “At the start of the day, you always want to have a chance. That was the goal and I managed to get into that position, so it&aposs good.” Miles Tunnicliff recorded the day&aposs best round with a nine-under 63 to join American Anthony Kang (64) and Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand (65) in a tie for fourth on 12-under. Overnight leader Danny Chia of Malaysia struggled with a two-over 74 which dropped him back into a tie for seventh with Shiv Kapur of India (66) on 11-under. Blyth, who has not recorded a victory in five seasons on the Asian Tour, trailed Chia by five strokes after a double bogey on his final hole yesterday when his ball bounced off a tree and went out of bounds. But he shrugged off that misfortune and steadily climbed up the leaderboard with birdies on the first, fourth and seventh to move to 11-under at the turn. He bogeyed the tricky par-four eighth but consecutive birdies on the 10th and 11th and an eagle on the 13th saw him jump ahead of Noren into first place. “I had 165 metres into the 13th and it was a bit downwind. I hit an eight iron into about eight feet and made the eagle which was nice,” said Blyth, whose father, Stephen, is his caddie. He improved to 15-under with a birdie on the 16th but bogeyed the next to end the day on 14-under-par. “I wanted to just go out and give it my best and see what the result is,” he added. “So far, it&aposs good and I&aposll go out there tomorrow and try to continue that to see what the end result is.” Noren began the day on 10-under, three shots off the lead but moved ahead of Chia to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on the third, fourth and eighth. The Swede kept pace with Blyth with his fourth birdie of the round on the 13th but dropped to 12-under following bogeys on the 15th and 17th. However, he holed a 30-footer for birdie at the last to draw level with Liang and remain within touching distance of Blyth. “I played pretty well on the front nine and should have probably picked up one other shot,” said Noren. “On the back nine, it was tougher, maybe because the other two guys had started to play a bit better and came back at me and suddenly my score didn&apost seem as good.” “But I really wanted to get myself into the last group and I managed to do that with my putt on 18 so I&aposm happy.”