Lowry six back as Ormsby seeks second Hong Kong Open success
Shane Lowry. Picture ©Darren Carroll/PGA of America
Shane Lowry will likely need a hot final day with the putter after a third-round 68 left him six shots behind leader Wade Ormsby in the Hong Kong Open.
The Open champion is just two strokes outside third place, but he will need to go low to catch the Australian who shot a four-under 66 to lead by two strokes from Thailand's Gunn Charoenkul on 13-under par.
Chasing will not be easy at a tight Hong Kong Golf Club and Ormsby, who won this title in 2017, hopes he can shoot another sub 70 score and force the pack to take chances as they try to reel him in.
"I'm not going to play conservative; I'll play the golf course exactly the same way I played it for 10-15 years and let them come at me, the 39-year old said. "And if they do, they do, I'm Just going to keep doing my thing.
"Of course I like the course, my game is hitting the ball quite straight and scrambling quite well, you know. I'm actually hitting my irons really good this week. I'm hitting a lot of greens in regulation, so I'm not really having to use the scrambling part of it too much.
"It is a good golf course, and you know I'm not a massively powerful player, so I just have to play to my strengths, and this golf course does fit my strengths.”
Just four shots behind overnight, Lowry had chances early in the round before eventually converting for birdie from close range after an excellent approach to the 380-metre seventh.
But while he scrambled well to save par at the short eighth and followed a birdie at the 10th with another at the 15th, where he holed a 25 footer, he bogey. the 17th to slip into a six-man tie for ninth on seven-under-par alongside the likes of US star Tony Finau, who made up ground with a 65.
Gunn (27) was thrilled to shoot 65 and sit alone in second on 11-under, even if he is thinking of his dress sense as his wife and regular caddie Koyy, who is due to give birth to a baby girl on February13, is usually with him to put his outfits together.
"She said my outfit didn't match, that's what she told me, Gunn told the South China Morning Post "I broke my white golf shoes and didn't have any white shoes left, and had a white hat and no black hat.
"I have one pair of shoes left and I don't have any black pants, just navy, and somehow I gave away my navy hat. So it's not going to match again tomorrow, and I'm not going to look go.. But she would be happy with the way I played today."
Australian Terry Pilkadaris shot 64 to share third place on nine-under with India's Rashid Khan (63), South Korea's Taewoo Kim #1468 (66) and Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond (67).
At the PGA Tour, Sony Open, Graeme McDowell looked to be heading for a weekend off when he bogeyed three of his first seven holes. But he played his last 10 in four-under, carding a one-under-par 69 to make the cut with a shot to spare on level par.
He’s six strokes behind Brendan Steele and Australian Cameron Davis, who shot four-under-par 66s at Waialae Country Club to lead by one stroke on six-under from a nine-strong group that features European Ryder Cup hopefuls Russell Knox and Rory Sabbatini, Australia's Cameron Smith, Keegan Bradley, Ryan Palmer, Sam Ryder, Bo Hoag, Rob Oppenheim and Collin Morikawa.
