Schwartzel, McLardy, Drysdale

share lead in Joburg Open

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
Charl Schwartzel, Andrew McLardy and David Drysdale share the lead going into Sunday's final round of the Joburg Open after the trio finished a rain-affected day three on 11 under par.
A second consecutive day of lightning and rain meant that three hours were lost in two separate interruptions at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, but it did not stop South African Schwartzel, pictured right, from producing a sizzling eight-under 63.
His countryman McLardy and Scot Drysdale, who led at the halfway stage, were less impressive, though, with both picking up birdies at the last for rounds of 69 and 71 respectively.
Retief Goosen, Joakim Haeggman and Anders Hansen lead the chasing pack at 10 under, with no fewer than seven players a further stroke back, including Britons Danny Willet (71) and Michael Hoey (72).
Schwartzel made the biggest move of the day in an eventful round that included an astonishing 10 birdies, a hole-in-one, two bogeys and also a double bogey.
He picked up seven shots through his opening 10 holes before a double bogey on the par-four 11th was followed by a sublime seven iron on the next hole - the par-three 205-yard 12th - that dropped 10 centimetres from the cup and rolled in.
The world number 68 said: "What a day. The first 10 holes, I felt pretty flawless. Nothing could go wrong, I was hitting the ball close, I wasn't making any long putts, I was just hitting it four foot from the hole every time.
"You know, seven under, I was thinking maybe I could make 59.
"And that came to a quick halt on the very next hole. I made double and then I was sort of almost ready to walk off the golf course right there.
"But then on the next hole I made a hole-in-one and was celebrating, so it was really nice."

THIRD-ROUND TOTALS

Par 213 (3 x 71)

202 David Drysdale 65 66 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 71 63, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 65 68 69
203 Anders Hansen (Den) 71 68 64, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 68 66, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 68 65
204 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 69 69 66, Danny Willett 67 66 71, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 69 65 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 71 66 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 65 69 70, James Kamte (Rsa) 69 69 66, Michael Hoey 64 68 72
205 Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 67 65 73, David Dixon 68 69 68, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 69 69 67
206 Brett Liddle (Rsa) 67 70 69, Graham De Laet (Can) 72 66 68, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 67 72 67, Richard McEvoy 69 65 72, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 67 70 69, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 72 64 70, Taco Remkes (Ned) 67 70 69, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 70 67 69, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 66 72 68
207 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 69 66 72, Gary Clark 72 67 68, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 69 67, Alan McLean 71 65 71, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 66 70
208 Antti Ahokas (Fin) 72 64 72, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 70 69 69, Keith Horne (Rsa) 68 70 70, Simon Griffiths 73 64 71
209 Brandon Pieters (Rsa) 68 71 70, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 74 65 70, John Mellor 72 67 70, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 65 71 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 69 69 71, James Morrison 67 68 74, Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 70 70 69, Gary Lockerbie 69 68 72, Iain Pyman 71 69 69, Dion Fourie (Rsa) 68 70 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 72 64 73
210 Kevin Stone (Rsa) 69 70 71, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 66 69 75, Tyrone Ferreira (Rsa) 68 72 70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 66 72 72, Doug McGuigan 69 71 70, Charl Coetzee (Rsa) 68 67 75, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 65 71 74
211 Chris Gane 70 70 71, Chris Wood 69 70 72, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 67 73 71, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 63 76 72, Jake Roos (Rsa) 69 69 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 68 70 73, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 69 71 71, John E Morgan 69 70 72, Cameron Johnston (Rsa) 72 66 73
212 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 67 71 74, David Carter 67 72 73, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 68 72 72, Carl Suneson (Spa) 67 73 72, Wallie Coetsee (Rsa) 72 64 76, Phillip Archer 69 70 73, Chris Doak 68 70 74
213 Andre Bossert (Swi) 70 69 74, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 70 70 73, Neil Cheetham 73 67 73, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 73 65 75, Bobby Lincoln (Rsa) 68 72 73, Edrich Jansen (Rsa) 70 70 73, Michele Reale (Ita) 66 74 73
214 Kasper linnet Jorgensen (Den) 68 72 74, Tc Charamba (Zim) 70 67 77, Michael Curtis (Zim) 74 65 75, Sam Little 72 68 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 65 78
215 Gregory Molteni (Ita) 73 65 77, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 67 73 75
219 Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 68 72 79

Halved four-ball match for Lawrie

but Asia lead by five points

By MICHAEL GIBBONS, European Tour Press Officer
European team captain José María Olazábal must inspire his men to perform a match-play miracle in Sunday's final set of singles after Asia took a 6½-1½ point lead at the Royal Trophy match today.
The Spanish captain, and the majority of the team he chose, were powerless to stop a flourishing Asian team dominating the scoreboard as the hosts extended their lead by a further 3pt, taking the four-ball foursomes 3-1/2.
Joe Ozaki's side won three of the four-ball contests and halved the other at Amata Spring Country Club near Bangkok to leave them needing two points out of eight on Sunday to claim their first Royal Trophy in the third edition event.
China's Liang Wen-chong and Charlie Wi of South Korea beat English pair Oliver Wilson and Nick Dougherty 3 and 2 before Aberdeen's Paul Lawrie and Søren Hansen of Denmark finished all square with Japanese duo Ryo Ishikawa and Toru Taniguchi.

Japanese teenage sensation Ishikawa and Taniguchi holed several big putts to square the top match with Taniguchi draining a 10-foot birdie on the last green for the half-point

Lawrie and Hansen, Europe's only foursomes winners, are the only members of Olazabal's side to avoid defeat so far.
Thai duo Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng claimed a 4 and 2 victory over Ireland's Paul McGinley and Pablo Larrazabal of Spainmuch to the delight of the huge home crowd, before Swedish pair Johan Edfors and Niclas Fasth lost 2 and 1 to Japan's Hideto Tanihara and SK Ho of South Korea.
But Olazábal, and many of his players, believe that Europe can bounce back if they can inspire an early shift in momentum in the Sunday singles.
"We cannot stop believing," the 42 year old Spaniard said. "We still have a chance - even though it's a slim one. The Asian team putted extremely well today on the greens - they made a lot of crucial putts, a lot of important putts at times when matches could go either way and they would make a ten footer or 12 footer and keep the momentum on their side. Sometimes golf is like that but we have to believe we can change that.”
The European captain has put his form players at the top of the draw for the Sunday singles, hoping that the likes of Hansen, Lawrie, Larrazabal and Wilson can turn the tide and create a sea of European blue on the Royal Trophy leaderboard.
“I have put the players in my Team that are playing the strongest up front in the draw because we need to get as many points as possible and we need to get them quickly. We have a tough task ahead of us. The Asian team played really well and made a lot of putts today, so we need to get out there and get a lot of blue numbers on the board as quickly as possible.”
Hansen and Wilson all echoed the comments of their captain.
Hansen said: “We will give it everything tomorrow – we will do some work tonight and the more we do then the better we will get but it is going to take a lot to turn this one around. We do believe in ourselves and our abilities though, but we need to make a fast start and keep going.”
Wilson said: “We still have hope. I think we played better today than yesterday but we have to have a good start middle and end tomorrow to have a chance – we can only afford to drop one and a half points but it is still possible because it’s only eight matches, not 12.”

Saturday's Four-ball results:

Asian players first

Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) and Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) halved with Soren Hansen (Den) and Paul Lawrie (Sco).
Charlie Wi (Kor) and Liang Wen-chong (PRC) bt Nick Dougherty (Eng) and Oliver Wilson (Eng) 3 & 2.

Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) and S K Ho (Kor) bt Niclas Fasth (Swe) and Johan Edfors (Swe) 2 & 1.

Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) and Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) bt Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) and Paul McGinley (Ire) 4 & 2.

Sunday's Singles pairings

11.06am: Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) vs Soren Hansen (Den)
11.15am: Liang Wen-chong (PRC) vs Paul Lawrie (Sco)
11.24am: Charlie Wi (Kor) vs Nick Dougherty (Eng)
11.33am: Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) vs Pablo Larrazabal (Esp)
11.42am: Hideto Tanihara (Tha) vs Oliver Wilson (Eng)
11.51am: SK Ho (Kor) vs Johan Edfors (Swe)
12.00pm: Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) vs Niclas Fasth (Swe)
12.09pm: Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) vs Paul McGinley (Ire)

US PGA Tour Scoreboard
MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIP
Kapalua Plantation GC, Hawaii
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 146 (2 x 73)
135 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 67 68
136 D J Trahan 70 66
137 Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 69
139 Kenny Perry 68 71, Anthony Kim 71 68, Sean O'Hair 69 70, Davis Love III 69 70, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 69 70, Johnson Wagner 68 71
140 Adam Scott (Aus) 73 67, Boo Weekley 70 70
141 Justin Leonard 74 67, Stewart Cink 74 67, Camilo Villegas (Col) 74 67
142 Will MacKenzie 72 70, KJ Choi (Kor) 71 71, Brian Gay 72 70
144 Dustin Johnson 72 72, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 72 72, Steve Lowery 69 75, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 72
145 Greg Kraft 72 73, Chez Reavie 75 70
146 Zach Johnson 71 75, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 73, Parker McLachlin 77 69
148 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 79 69
149 J B Holmes 74 75, Cameron Beckman 76 73
152 Andres Romero (Arg) 78 74, Marc Turnesa 79 73
153 Ryan Palmer 78 75