Frittelli three clear with a round to go in China Open


EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Dylan Frittelli will take a three-shot lead into the final day of the Volvo China Open after continuing his excellent recent form in Beijing.

The South African tied the course record with a 63 at Topwin Golf and Country Club on Friday and followed that up with a 64 to get to 19 under par 197 on a day when Beijing hit temperatures of 35 degrees - the hottest day on record for April.

The Challenge Tour graduate is in search of his maiden European Tour title – the 26 year old finished tied fifth last week at the Shenzhen International - and will enter the final round brimming with confidence after recording 39 bogey-free holes.

Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal is his nearest challenger on 16 under after carding a 70 in testing conditions this afternoon with Frenchman Alexander Levy sitting at 12 under.

England's Chris Wood fired an excellent 65 with just a single bogey to get to 11 under, a shot clear of South Korean Kyong-jun Moon (66) and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (69).

Ross Fisher had set the early pace with a 64 that moved him to nine under and included a hole-in-one, the second in his professional career. The Englishman holed his tee-shot with a pitching wedge on the 128-yard sixth hole for the 15th ace of the European Tour season.

Home favourites Li Haotong and Yi Cao were also nine under alongside South African George Coetzee and South Korea's Soomin Lee.

Player Quotes: 

Dylan Frittelli

“Expectations weren’t that high, I was just hoping to try and make a few birdies on each nine and post four or five under as my goal at the start of the day and mangaed to keep the card clean and make a few more birdies.

“The players out here are some of the best players in Europe and Asia so it’s tough to beat the other players in the field. The emotions you go through and the feelings you have in competition coming down the stretch, those are all pretty similar whether it’s winning an amateur tournament or a professional tournament
"It’s the same type of feelings that you have to deal with, so hopefully I can contend well tomorrow and deal with those emotions.

“I just keep the routine the same. I’m just going to try and make birdies tomorrow – I didn’t back down today – I hit the driver off 17 and was aggressive there, it might not of paid off but I like to think I would keep the same game plan tomorrow and maybe adjust on the back nine depending on the situation.

“Pablo played great out there today as well - he’s not going to lie down, he is one of the toughest guys to get into a dog fight with on the European Tour - so I'm definitely going to be wary of him tomorrow.

Pablo Larrazábal

“I couldn’t put it close on the front nine, it was tricky that wind


 – it was stronger than the last couple of days – but I tried


hard, a nice birdie on ten to keep me going but it looks like


I’m going to play with Dylan again and if he plays as good as


he did today then he is going to be unbeatable but I’ll try my


best.
 

“It wasn’t the best day out there for me but to shoot two under par without your best performance is good.

It is tough to win out here but I have done it four times so I have that experience.
"Only one of my wins I think came from leading the tournament, so I have one three of them coming from behind so I like to attack the golf course and for me it’s all about winning so I am going to do my best tomorrow.

Alex Levy

“It was really difficult day – the conditions were very tough. I had a bad double-bogey on the fourth but I played good golf after that and I’m happy with the way I played today.

“It was close to being a really good day, the putts didn’t drop today but it’s nice to be in this position.

Chris Wood

"It’s nice to make some birdies and show some signs of good golf because the golf has been there I just haven’t had the scores. Today was one of those days where I really could have done with going a couple lower to give me a chance tomorrow.

“A couple shy for my liking. I know there is a score out there and if I’m within the chasing pack that’s fine, I’ll give it a good go. I was never going to be up into the lead today whatever I shot, but 65 on a Saturday is decent.

THIRD ROUND SCOREBOARD

par 216 (3x72)

197 D Frittelli (SAf) 70 63 64
200 P Larrazábal (Spn) 64 66 70
204 A Levy (Fra) 63 70 71
205 C Wood (Eng) 72 68 65
206 B Wiesberger (Aut) 69 68 69, K Moon (SKor) 69 71 66

207 R Fisher (Eng) 73 70 64, G Coetzee (SAf) 67 69 71, S Lee (SKor) 69 65 73, L Haotong (Chn) 69 71 67, C Yi (Chn) 68 72 67
208 B Hebert (Fra) 70 72 66, T Olesen (Den) 71 67 70, Y Yang (SKor) 69 68 71, J Van Zyl (RSA) 68 69 71, R Gouveia (Por) 74 67 67, J Carlsson (Swe) 70 70 68, J Campillo (Spn) 68 70 70,
209 D Lipsky (USA) 69 71 69, P Peterson (USA) 69 69 71, R Wattel (Fra) 72 71 66, J Walters (SAf) 71 70 68, P Angles (Spn) 70 68 71, N Colsaerts (Bel) 72 66 71, T Detry (Bel) 70 66 73, J Norris (Aus) 70 73 66, J Morrison (Eng) 67 74 68, W Ashun (Chn) 71 70 68, R Cho (SKor) 72 70 67, M Ilonen (Fin) 70 70 69, P Uihlein (USA) 72 66 71, R Jacquelin (Fra) 67 71 71
210 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 66 71, C Paisley (Eng) 73 70 67, T Jaidee (Tha) 72 71 67, R Paratore (Ita) 74 68 68, S Brazel (Aus) 73 70 67, M Hendry (NZ) 72 67 71, D Burmester (SAf) 67 70 73
211 B Ritthammer (Ger) 70 67 74, J Quesne (Fra) 74 68 69, D Howell (Eng) 71 71 69, P Khongwatmai (Tha) 70 73 68, S Chawrasia (Ind) 71 72 68, R Karlberg (Swe) 69 71 71, F Zanotti (Par) 71 67 73, B Stone (SAf) 70 71 70,
212 M Manassero (Ita) 70 70 72, B Dredge (Wal) 72 68 72, D Fichardt (RSA) 69 71 72, M Southgate (Eng) 71 72 69, B Rumford (Aus) 71 71 70, F Aguilar (Chi) 73 67 72, G Storm (Eng) 69 68 75,
213 L Bjerregaard (Den) 71 72 70, J Choi (SKor) 69 70 74, S Walker (Eng) 69 74 70, N Elvira (Esp) 73 70 70, J Wang (SKor) 73 66 74, J Luiten (Ned) 68 69 76,
214 R Rock (Eng) 72 70 72
215 M Guyatt (Aus) 72 71 72, M Siem (Ger) 71 70 74, R Ramsay (Sco) 71 72 72
216 Y Wo-Cheng (Chn) 74 69 73
218 S Zi-Han (Chn) 73 70 75, W Hongfu (Chn) 72 70 76
** P Hanson (Swe) 67 71 Retired

MISSED THE CUT
 144 G Bourdy (Fra) 76 68 0, H Wen-Yi (Chn) 71 73 0, F Shiyu (Chn) 73 71 0, R Karlsson (Swe) 70 74 0, C Pigem (Spn) 74 70 0, S Gallacher (Sco) 71 73 0, T Rongjian (Chn) 73 71 0, N Cullen (Aus) 74 70 0, G Stal (Fra) 73 71 0, A Cañizares (Esp) 71 73 0, D Drysdale (Sco) 71 73 0, R Langasque (Fra) 73 71 0, S Dong (Chn) 71 73 0, L Slattery (Eng) 75 69 0, R Fox (Nzl) 70 74 0, J Smith (Eng) 69 75 0,
145 J Singh (Ind) 73 72 0, R Bland (Eng) 74 71 0, M Carlsson (Swe) 74 71 0, H Porteous (SAf) 74 71 0, N Tantipokhakul (Tha) 74 71 0, A Otaegui (Esp) 70 75 0, J Kaske (Fin) 71 74 0, N Sae-Ueng (Tha) 75 70 0, G Bhullar (Ind) 74 71 0, X Bowen (Chn) 75 70 0, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 76 0, A Knappe (Ger) 72 73 0, Y Kim (SKor) 74 71 0, D McKenzie (Aus) 73 72 0
146 S Hend (Aus) 76 70 0, J Da-Xing (Chn) 74 72 0, A Wall (Eng) 71 75 0, M Sim (Aus) 75 71 0, T Bjørn (Den) 74 72 0 
147 L Yan Wei (Chn) 70 77 0, M Korhonen (Fin) 74 73 0, B Kim (Kor) 76 71 0, S Kim (SKor) 76 71 0, A Dodt (Aus) 72 75 0, J Scrivener (Aus) 75 72 0, L Xin-Yang (Chn) 77 70 0, A Björk (Swe) 73 74 0, K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 73 74 0, W Dongyu (Chn) 76 71 0,
148 G Kim (SKor) 77 71 0, W Zi-Ting (Chn) 74 74 0, S Jeffress (Aus) 76 72 0, C Zi-Hao (Chn) 71 77 0, E Molinari (Ita) 74 74 0, H Shao-Cai (Chn) 78 70 0, Y Jian-Feng (Chn) 77 71 0,
149 J Lagergren (Swe) 75 74 0, N Bertasio (Ita) 75 74 0,
150 G Havret (Fra) 80 70 0, R Dillon (USA) 77 73 0, Z Hui-Lin (Chn) 78 72 0, C Shinkwin (Eng) 71 79 0, Y Hao (Chn) 73 77 0, M Baldwin (USA) 77 73 0, J Zunic (Aus) 73 77 0
151 Y Tian (Chn) 80 71 0, L Xue-Wen (Chn) 75 76 0, H Ze-Yu (Chn) 75 76 0, L Lu Sen (Tpe) 75 76 0
152 W Chang-Wei (Chn) 78 74 0, Z Junbin (Chn) 77 75 0
153 D Chen Xiao (Chn) 76 77 0, B Snyder (USA) 73 80 0, O Zheng (Chn) 78 75 0, M Mikura (am) (Jpn) 74 79 0 
154 Y Yi-Nong (Chn) 78 76 0, T Kim (SKor) 79 75 0 
155 L Tighe (Aus) 76 79 0, L Ding-Feng (Chn) 78 77 0, Z Jin (Chn) 79 76 0, C Yilong (Chn) 78 77 0 
156 Z Lianwei (Chn) 76 80 0
158 W Wei-Huang (Chn) 79 79 0, N Holman (Aus) 77 81 0, Z Zhu (Chn) 81 77  
159 Z Zi-Hong (Chn) 81 78 0
160 C Ding-Gen (Chn) 79 81 0
161 H Ren (Chn) 81 80 0
162 C Hai-Meng (Chn) 86 76 0, ** L Jensen (Den) 76 WD 0, L Yuxin (Chn) 83 RT 0, L Chun (Chn) retired