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Quiros Leads By Two As Donald Focuses on Golfing History
10 December 2011
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Spain’s Alvaro Quiros goes into the final round of the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World with a two-shot lead tomorrow, while World Number One Luke Donald looks set to make golfing history at the Earth course, Jumeirah Golf Estates.
While Quiros is favourite to add the Dubai World Championship crown to the Dubai Desert Classic trophy he won earlier in the year, all eyes are on 34 year-old Englishman Donald who needs to finish in the top nine to guarantee becoming the first man in the history of the sport to win both the US and European Money Lists in one season.
And the unassuming Donald is well on course after shooting a blemish-free six under par 66 to jump from joint twelfth to fourth overall on ten under par (206), four shots behind Quiros on fourteen under (202).
With Rory McIlroy, the only man capable of toppling Donald, slipping back to joint eighth on eight under, The Race to Dubai crown looks like Donald’s to lose.
Quiros, the World Number 52, who appears as comfortable on the Earth course as he is back home in Cadiz, continued to play the 7,675-yard Greg Norman-designed track with a smile on his face despite a round of 70 (-2) that included an eagle, four birdies and four bogeys.
“I have to be positive even though I started and finished with a bogey,” said Quiros. “I’m two shots ahead and leading the tournament so I can only be happy about today.
“My strategy for the week has been perfect, so tomorrow it will hopefully be the same one – holing good putts, still hitting good shots and scoring another five or six under.”
Quiros goes into the final two with a two-shot cushion chased by a host of stellar names including two former Open Champions in second and third – Paul Lawrie of Scotland lies second on twelve under par (204), while South African Louis Oosthuizen is on eleven under (205) after both shot rounds of 66 (-6).
But it’s fourth-placed Donald who looks set to rewrite the record books after his own bogey-free round of 66 (-6) pushed him right back into the title hunt after two days chasing the tail of World Number Two McIlroy, who was followed around the course yesterday by girlfriend and tennis World Number One Caroline Wozniaki.
“I tried to concentrate on my own game but I looked at the leaderboard a couple of times and saw that Rory’s name wasn’t there,” said Donald.
“It didn’t affect my game but it did give me a little bit of ease and a slight peace of mind.”
Donald, who started the appropriately named Moving Day some seven shots behind McIlroy, has always believed that if he looks after his own game on the course then the destiny of The Race to Dubai crown will take care itself.
“Winning The Race to Dubai does cross your mind but you have to put it away quickly,” said Donald, after a round he described as “not perfect”.
“But I am not going to think the job is done – it’s the fourth round of the tournament and I will treat it like any other event. I’ve said it from the start and I am not going to change now.
“I’ll go back to the hotel tonight, have 30 minutes in the gym, eat, call my family then go to sleep and try to win the tournament tomorrow.”
On a day when several of the big guns started firing on all cylinders, the stand out round came from Germany’s Martin Kaymer.
The defending Race to Dubai champion eagled the last to equal the course record eight under par 64 and move into a tie for eighth place – it was the third consecutive course record at the Earth course following rounds of 64 by Hanson on Thursday and Quiros on Friday.
Kaymer, now six shots behind, believes he still has something to offer. “It depends on the weather – I’m only a few shots back and I obviously need a similar round tomorrow. But it’s the last tournament, the last day of 2011 and I will try to do everything I can.”
The closest challenger to Quiros remains the rather unlikely figure of 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie, who nailed a 40ft putt for eagle on the last to clinch a date with Quiros in the final two-ball of the season as both players target the $1.25 million first prize.
“Alvaro played really well in Hong Kong last week but had a poor final round so he’ll be looking to put that right tomorrow,” said Lawrie who has just one tournament win to his name in the past nine years.
“It’s the old cliché but I just have to take it one day at a time. I just need to play the same as I did the last two days and take my chances.”
Play in the final round begins at 7.24am while leader Alvaro Quiros and Paul Lawrie will take to the course for the final round of The Race to Dubai season at 12.05pm. Luke Donald will partner Louis Oosthuizen in the penultimate pairing at 11.55am.
Entrance to the $7.5 million event – staged under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council – is free of charge by registering on this website.
