Casey sweeps into Abu Dhabi lead

with nine holes to go in Round 3

Paul Casey took a two-stroke lead into the back nine of his third round at the Abu Dhabi Championship today.
Casey trailed joint leaders fellow Englishman Graeme Storm and Richard Green, the Australian left-hander, by one shot overnight but overtook them by covering the outward half in 32 shots to be on the 14 under par mark overall with nine holes to play in the third round.
Casey, 31. birdied the first, second, seventh and eighth as he followed up a sparkling second-round 65. He won this tournament two years ago.
Storm, playing his first tournament for more than two months, led on his own when he birdied the first and fifth, but a poor tee shot to the short seventh found the rough and failing to salvage a par dropped him alongside Londoner Anthony Wall at 12 under.
Green also opened with a birdie, but then came bogeys on the fifth and ninth and instead it was defending champion Martin Kaymer, Swede Per Hanson and South African Louis Oosthuizen in joint fourth.
Padraig Harrington was only one further back after an outward 33 and youngsters Rory McIlroy and Oliver Fisher were on the same mark, while Sergio Garcia threatened to get back into contention when he covered his first 13 holes in six under, but a bogey followed and left the world number two eight under.
Colin Montgomerie, now thought to be ready to become Ryder Cup captain for the 2010 match in Wales, stood six under with four to play.