POULTER LEADS DONALD BY TWO

WITH A ROUND TO GO IN DUNLOP
PHOENIX IN JAPAN

Ian Poulter birdied the final hole to open a two-stroke lead over fellow Englishman Luke Donald after the third round at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan today.
Poulter, pictured right, coped well with demanding conditions to shoot a three-under-par 67 in a testing breeze at Phoenix Country Club.
He posted a 10-under 200 total, while Donald also shot 67 to be alone in second place on 203.
Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Japan's Daisuke Marayama were tied for third, four shots from the lead, while Irishman Padraig Harrington shot 73 to plunge six strokes off the pace.
Harrington, the defending champion, started the day tied for the lead with Poulter, but littered his card with five bogeys.
Poulter and Donald are likely to be Ryder Cup team-mates next year, but that will be the last thing on their minds as they both are seeking their first win of the year.
"The wind made it a bit more difficult for everybody today but I played very, very solidly and it was nice to shoot a decent score," Poulter said after posting a 10-under total of 200.
"I'm leading, playing well, and if I go out and play well we'll have a good result.
"Luke's a good golfer. I'm sure he's going to try to make plenty of birdies and it's for me to play well and hold the pack at bay."

LEADING SCORES

THIRD ROUND

Par 210 (3 x 70)
200 Ian Poulter (Eng) 65 68 67
202 Luke Donald (Eng) 69 66 67
204 Daisuke Maruyama 67 67 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 66 69 69
205 Shigeki Maruyama 69 69 67, Shingo Katayama 67 67 71
206 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 68 70, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 65 72, Toshinori Muto 65 71 70, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 68 65 73
207 Katsumasa Miyamoto 68 72 67, Craig Parry (Aus) 71 66 70, Brendan Jones (Aus) 69 67 71, Takashi Kanemoto 68 72 67, S K Ho (Kor) 67 70 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 69 69, Hideto Tanihara 68 71 68
208 Yasuharu Imano 67 68 73, Kaname Yokoo 69 69 70, Nobuhito Sato 68 73 67, Brandt Snedeker 70 70 68, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 65 71 72, Toru Taniguchi 69 68 71
209 Mamo Osanai 68 72 69
210 Ryo Ishikawa 72 68 70, Masaya Tomida 70 68 72, David Smail (Nzl) 69 68 73, Tomohiro Kondo 68 72 70
211 Tetsuya Haraguchi 69 70 72, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 69 71 71, Dong-Hwan Lee 70 69 72, Yusaku Miyazato 68 71 72, Tatsuhiko Takahashi 72 67 72, Kenichi Kuboya 69 72 70
212 Kiyoshi Miyazato 70 71 71, Azuma Yano 71 66 75, Greg Meyer 68 72 72, Taichi Teshima 70 69 73, Nobuhiro Masuda 72 70 70, Hiroyuki Fujita 68 71 73
213 Makoto Inoue 70 72 71, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 70 69 74
214 Ryoken Kawagishi 71 72 71
215 Katsumune Imai 72 71 72
216 Hirofumi Miyase 71 72 73, Chris Campbell (Aus) 66 74 76, Mitsuhiro Tateyama 72 69 75, Ryuichi Oda 76 67 73, Tadahiro Takayama 75 68 73, Yui Ueda 73 70 73, Kazuhika Hosokawa 69 73 74
217 Keiichiro Fukabori 71 71 75
218 Masahiro Kuramoto 70 73 75, Hideki Kase 74 68 76, Hisayuki Sasaki 70 73 75
219 Hiroo Kawai 69 73 77, Tommy Nakajima 69 71 79, Tetsuji Hiratsuka 68 72 79, Takao Nogami 74 68 77
220 Jun Kikuchi 71 72 77