Shubhankar Shoots 69, Lies 37th in Abu Dhabi; Westwood Take Lead

Abu Dhabi, Jan 18 (PTI) India's Shubhankar Sharma holed more birdies than either of the first two days, but also dropped four shots in an eventful third round to be placed tied 37th in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship here on Saturday.

Shubhankar posted his first-ever score in the 60s. After 71-70 on the first two days, he returned three-under 69 to get to six-under for the tournament.

"One shot improvement each day," said Shubhankar with a smile.

"There were a lot of birdies, which was good, but there were also some stupid bogeys including a three-putt on 14th. So, it was a mixed bag, but still overall okay.

"I am pretty content as three-under is a good score. At the start I did not find too many fairways, but found the rhythm on the back nine, but still I feel I left a few shots out there. Yet, it is possible to shoot a low number on this course as some players have shown."

There was a time when the leaderboard had eight players sharing the lead and over 40 players within three of the lead.

The veteran 46-year-old Lee Westwood then delivered a five-under 31 on the front side of the course. It included an eagle from inside five feet on the par-5 eighth after a superb second shot.

Leader by three at one stage, Westwood finished with three birdies against one bogey on the back nine for a day's total of seven-under 65 that carried him to the top at 14-under.

Westwood ultimately finished one ahead of Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (65) and overnight leader Italian Francesco Laporta (69).

Matt Fitzpatrick (69) was fourth at 12-under. American Kurt Kitayama, who in a five-week period in 2019, finished in Top-4 three times in Italy, France and Turkey, shot 68 in the third round to tie for fifth spot with Sergio Garcia (67) at 11-under.

Wiesberger showed that his excellent form of 2019 was still continuing as he matched Westwood's 65 and was placed tied-second alongside overnight leader Laporta.

The morning belonged to German Sebastian Heisele(64) as he moved from the cut line at one-under to the very top for a brief while before others overtook him. He was eventually T-9 by the end of the day.

Earlier in the morning, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who made the cut on the line despite a quadruple bogey '9' on par-5 second on second day, shot 65 on the third day to zoom up to T-14 at eight-under.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)