Tiger Woods of USA plays hiis 2nd shot on the 5th hole during day three of the CIMB Classic at The MINES Resort & Golf Club on October 27, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
(October 26, 2012 – Source: Stanley Chou/Getty Images AsiaPac)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Bo Van Pelt missed a chance at a rare 59 on Saturday when he had double-bogey on the 18th at the CIMB Classic, an unofficial PGA Tour event.
Van Pelt, the defending champion, had four birdies in the first six holes, then five in a row from the eighth on the par-71 Mines Resort and Golf Club course. He had two more birdies to give him 11 in round and only needed one more to join an elite club.
However, he hit his approach on No. 18 into the greenside bunker and needed three putts, finishing with a 9-under 62 for a share of the third-round lead with Robert Garrigus at 16-under.
Garrigus, who led by two strokes coming into the weekend, had 69 for a total of 197, while fellow American Chris Kirk shot a 63 to move to 15-under, one clear of Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge and South Africa’s Jbe Kruger.
Tiger Woods started aggressively with five birdies in the first eight holes but had three bogeys and a double-bogey on the back nine and finished at 69 to be in a group of five players tied at 11-under.
Only five players have shot 59 in official PGA Tour events – the last being Stuart Appleby at the 2010 Greenbrier Classic. If Van Pelt had shot a 59 it wouldn’t have counted on Van Pelt’s official statistics because the CIMB Classic – which is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour – doesn’t become a full-fledged PGA Tour event until next year.
The 37-year-old American said his chance for a 59 vanished in the bunker.
“From there, I pretty much had nothing,” he said. “Obviously disappointed to finish with a double (bogey) but I’m really proud of the 17 1/2 holes I played and hopefully that’ll carry on tomorrow, and not the last one.”
He said it wasn’t nerves that got to him.
“Surprisingly, I wasn’t really nervous at all. I’ve never had that good a chance to shoot a 59 before and, to be honest, I’ll probably look back on it and think about the third hole,” he said. “I had a 5-iron from the middle of the fairway and didn’t make birdie. I’ll look back at 15, I’m 30 yards from the green with an easy pitch and don’t make it. Those are the holes that cost me more than 18.”
Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa has the lowest round on a major tour, shooting a 12-under 58 to win the 2010 Crowns in the Japan Tour. Tommy Gainey missed a putt for a 59 at the McGladrey Classic and finished with a 60 in the last round to win the title last weekend, when Van Pelt was in Australia where he won the Perth International.
Woods knows he’s going to need a score like that to have any chance of winning the $6.1 million title at the Mines course where he won the individual and team World Cup titles in 1999 on his last visit to Malaysia.
Thousands of people followed Woods and 2010 champion Ben Crane around the course, with the whir of camera shutters forcing Woods to stop his backswing on the 4th hole and the crowd causing him to pause at other times.
He’d promised to be aggressive and attack the course on the weekend, and he started with a birdie at the par-4 first hole. He got down to 14-under with four more birdies on the front nine to turn in 30, but then had a bogey at the 12th, a double bogey at the 14th where he had to drop a shot after hitting his tee shot in a water hazard beside the green and another bogey at 17 after missing a birdie putt.
“I’m going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow, something similar to what Bo did today,” he said. “The problem with being this far back is I’m going to need help. A great round tomorrow might not win it, that’s the only problem, but I’m going to put up a great round anyways.”
Woods said he just made too many mistakes on Saturday.
“I was right there. I had plenty of easy holes to go, but I didn’t capitalize on that at all,” he said. “I made a couple of bad decisions, bad swings on top of that.
“On a golf course that’s playing this benign, you just can’t afford to do that. It can be had out there – I had it after eight holes, just didn’t keep it going.”
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after his shot on the 7th hole during the third round of the BMW Masters at the Lake Malaren Golf Club on October 27, 2012 in Shanghai, China.
(October 26, 2012 – Source: Scott Halleran/Getty Images AsiaPac)
Hanson leads BMW Masters, McIlroy shot one back
SHANGHAI (AP) — Peter Hanson shot a 2-under 70 to lead Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy by one stroke after the third round of the inaugural BMW Masters on Saturday.
Hanson, who won the KLM Open last month, was at 15-under 200 at the Lake Malaren Course. He’s wary of McIlroy, who shot a 69.
“I feel myself very lucky to be in this position and hopefully I can stay ahead of him because it is going to be a tough one considering the way he is playing, so I need to play a little bit better than I did tomorrow to have a chance of beating him,” Hanson said. “But if I were to win this event it would be massive and this is the start of a big stretch coming up now, so it’s just nice to find a bit of form and see yourself up there, and having a bit of a chance of winning the title.
“But I do need to step up a bit more because if I don’t I am going to have the world No. 1 snapping right at my heels, and if I’m not careful he could be going pass me.”
McIlroy, chasing a fifth title this season, won the exhibition Shanghai Masters tournament on the same course last year.
“It would mean a lot if I could successfully defend here at Lake Malaren, even though this year’s event is now on the European Tour, so it would be nice to win for a second time,” he said. “What also would be most pleasing is that I will come into these last few weeks of my year trying to wrap up the Race to Dubai No. 1 title.
“I’ve put myself into contention this week and (if) I’m to finish this one off that would give me a nice lead going into my last three events. So that would more pleasing than anything else as it would extend my lead over Justin (Rose) and Branden (Grace), so that when I do get to Dubai later next month I won’t have to do much.”
George Coetzee of South Africa (66) was in third at 12 under. Alexander Noren of Sweden (69), Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland (68), South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel (68), Shane Lowry of Ireland (69) and the England pair of Justin Rose (69) and Luke Donald (68) were tied for fourth another shot back.
