Golf-Casey fires 66 to share Doha lead with Dredge (Reuters)
January 30, 2010
By Bernie McGuire
DOHA, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Paul Casey fired a sublime 66 tograb a share of the lead with fellow Briton Bradley Dredge inthe third round of the Qatar Masters on Saturday.
Casey, five shots off the pace on Friday, carded sevenbirdies and a bogey to finish the round on 10-under-par 206.
Dredge survived a double bogey on the fifth by hitting fivebirdies to score 70 as he and Casey opened up a one shot leadgoing into Sunday’s final round.
England’s Lee Westwood was forced to change his drivermid-round after it cracked but kept his focus to card a 70. Helies third on nine under par.
Sweden’s Robert Karlsson (70) and overnight leaderAustralia’s Brett Rumford (73) were a further shot adrift.
Casey was especially delighted with his round of 66 as hehad missed the Doha cut in all three of his previousappearances.
“This is my best round around this golf course in four yearsof trying, so I can’t say a bad thing about it.”
But while he was pleased to top the leaderboard, Casey saidhe had not regained full fitness after being sidelined late lastyear with a rib injury.
“I’ll go 95, which is almost 100, isn’t it?” he asked.
“The only thing I feel right now is tightness in the backbut it’s been a good test this week because the rough is thick.
“The only reason it’s 95 percent is I don’t feel I’ve gotcomplete range of motion back yet but I haven’t held back on anyshot.
“I’ll give it another couple of weeks and there’s no reasonwhy I can’t be 100 percent.”
Welshman Dredge is looking to snap a three-year barren runand is hoping his Dubai run will also improve his chances oflanding a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
“To play in the Ryder Cup in Wales is a once in a lifetimeopportunity, for all of the Welsh guys, not just myself, withthe Ryder Cup being in Wales,” he said.
“I want to perform my best this year and give myself achance.”
Dredge added his decision to train during the off season inSpain is now paying off with his promising run in the MiddleEast.
“I would normally take four weeks off over the winter, sothis year I took two weeks off where I didn’t touch a club,” hesaid.
“I spent the other two weeks practising on my game in Spainas I was very aware that I wanted to come into these events withmy game as good as it could possibly could be.”
Westwood was aware something was wrong with his driver whenhis downwind tee shot at the 10th hole carried some 270-yardsinstead of the expected 300 yards.
He still birdied the 10th and 11th holes before calling fora rules official to inspect his driver and was given permissionto replace the damaged club.
“It’s not the sort of situation you want thrown at youcoming down the few closing holes where if you are looking tomake a few birdies, and you could have a two-shot or a threeshot lead,” said Westwood, who lost his way slightly with abogey in the 15th.
“It’s just unfortunate because I really liked that driver.
“But then I am only one shot behind, so it’s a good positionto be in.”
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar; To query or comment on this storyemail sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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