The Hindu : Sport : Mickelson leads by two strokes

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Mickelson leads by two strokes

Randhawa tied sixth after round three

— Photo: AP

Taking charge: American Phil Mickelson birdied the last hole for a two-stroke lead in the HSBC Champions golf tournament.

SHANGHAI: Phil Mickelson birdied the last hole for a two-stroke lead over Tiger Woods and Nick Watney at the HSBC Champions on Saturday, setting up a dream finale to the World golf championship event.

The World No. 2 stroked a 67 to be 14 under for the tournament on 202, with Woods and Watney, the joint second round leaders, breathing down his neck after firing 70s.

American Ryan Moore is fourth, three off the lead, while England’s Lee Westwood, who lost to Mickelson in 2007 in a play-off, is a shot further back after a best-of-the-day 65.

The Ryder Cup ace leads the Race to Dubai — the European money list — with two events to go. Just behind him is India’s Jyoti Randhawa and American Anthony Kim with Ernie Els and a group of three others another shot adrift.

Under overcast skies and in breezy conditions, Mickelson started the day one shot behind but birdied three of the opening eight holes before dropping a shot on the difficult ninth, where he found the trees.

Another birdie on the 14th kept him level pegging on top of the scoreboard and when he drilled another on the next hole he was in the outright lead for the first time. He picked up another shot at the last to give himself a two shot cushion.

Woods was in the last group out on Saturday and, followed by thousands of fans, grabbed his first birdie of the day on the second when he putted from four feet after a pinpoint approach.

Birdies on the fifth and eighth kept him on track but a drive into the sand at the ninth had him in trouble and he dropped a shot to go to the turn at 12 under.

Woods recovered by picking up a shot on the 10th but hit another bogey on the next before parring the following seven holes.

Cautious approach

Jyoti Randhawa shunned aggression for caution and carded a second successive two-under 70 for a total of eight-under 208.

Randhawa acknowledged that he would need a special effort on Sunday to upstage Mickelson and Woods.

“It’s not easy out there. Guys are trying to get aggressive and they make a few bogeys and suddenly you’re out of the tournament,” he said.

“So I just played consistent golf, stuck to what I needed to do and made some putts,” said the 2002 Asian Tour No. 1.

After opening with a couple of pars, the Delhi-pro stumbled to a bogey on the third hole before hitting back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth. But a dropped shot on the sixth brought him back to square one before a birdie on the ninth hole helped him make the turn one-under. — Agencies

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