Hansen And Laporta Hold Off Charges To Remain One Shot Ahead At Aviv Dubai Championship
With six players within three shots of the lead, the stage is set for an exciting final round of action at the Aviv Dubai Championship.
The trio of Joachim Hansen, Francesco Laporta, and Antoine Rozner remain at the top of the leaderboard with Hansen and Laporta edging one-shot ahead of Rozner after matching 67’s around the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Hansen, currently 85th on the Race to Dubai rankings, will be looking for a strong finish tomorrow to secure his second victory on the European Tour and one of the final places in the DP World Tour Championship next week, where the top-50 players on the Race to Dubai will battle it out for the USD $9million prize pot and European Number One crown.
After the round, Hansen said: “It was very good from tee to green, the best I’ve ever played from tee to green. I missed a lot of good chances at the beginning and a few on the back nine. All in all five under is a good score but it could have been a lot better.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we’ll see how that’s going to go. Hopefully it will be another beautiful day and we’ll see what happens in the end. I just need to stay patient, I had a lot of chances out there today, so just stay patient and see what happens.”
Co-leader, Laporta, added: “It was a good day, it was a good fight with the other guys. It wasn’t easy this afternoon, it was pretty windy and the greens were getting firmer so I’m really happy with my score.
“My game is pretty good actually. I didn’t hit the irons very solid like the other days, so we’re going to work on that this afternoon on the range. My driver is in good shape and my putting is getting there so I’ll try to keep that going tomorrow.”
Two-shots back of the lead, Finish golfer Kalle Samooja is in search of his maiden victory on the European Tour making four birdies and an eagle on route to a 68, holding sole position 4th place.
Climbing up the leaderboard, Jazz Janewattananond and Adrian Meronk made the biggest moves of the day, both shooting 63 to match the lowest round of the tournament so far jumping into a tie for 7th and 10th respectively. Meronk finished in style, hitting his second shot down the 18th to a few feet for a tap in eagle.
Five-time European Tour winner and Ryder Cup star, Tommy Fleetwood, remains in a dangerous position just three shots back of the lead alongside the 23-year-old, two-time European Tour winner, Min Woo Lee.
After an eight-shot difference between his front and back nine, Fleetwood said: “Lucky that I like the back nine! It was just a tale of two nines, including yesterday. After nine holes today, to finish the day on that score is amazing really, very pleased.
“I’m just really happy that I could get something going and play the way I did. Then you go into tomorrow, I can’t do anything about what those guys do. Someone could finish with an eagle, someone could shoot 60 tomorrow, that’s not my problem. All I can do is do what I did on the back nine today and try do that for a full round.”
The final day of play on the Fire Course will get started at 7.23am tomorrow, with the golfers battling it out to be crowned the second Aviv Dubai Championship winner.
