Dubai: China’s Li Haotong could become the Omega Dubai Desert Classic’s first Asian winner if he hangs on to his one stroke lead at 20-under, heading into Sunday’s final round at Emirates Golf Club.
The 22-year-old started Saturday’s third round in third position on 12 under, three strokes behind second round leader Rory McIlroy, and a stroke behind second-placed Jamie Donaldson, who was leading after round one.
Li then added to his earlier rounds of 66, 66 with a 64 on Saturday, thanks to four birdies on either nine to push ahead of McIlroy by a stroke.
McIlroy followed up opening rounds of 65, 64 with a slower 68 to sit second on 19 under, and Donaldson dropped off the pace completely after adding a 75 to 62 and 69 to sit tied for 35.
Alexander Levy was at one stage leading day three at 18 under after a hole in one and six birdies through 13, but then he bogeyed 15 and 16 before birdieing the last, to sit tied for third at 17 under with Haydn Porteous.
“I’ve never been in this position before, so it’s going to be fun out there tomorrow,” said Li, who has one European Tour win since turning professional in 2011, at the Volvo China Open in 2016. “Hopefully I can do my best out there and have some low scores.”
Of Saturday’s round, which was played alongside McIlroy and Donaldson, he said: “I played really solid, especially as I had a couple of up and downs, so I was quite happy to shoot eight under on this course.
“I just want to play by myself and play my game. I thought if I stayed patient, I’ll play good. So I just stayed patient all day.”
On playing with Rory, he added: “It’s my first time so far and it was quite a great experience, so I enjoyed today.”
Fog saw tee-times delayed for almost three hours on Friday, meaning half the field had to come back in early on Saturday morning to complete their rounds because they had run out of daylight the day before.
McIlroy was one of those affected, signing off on Friday night on three under through 11 before the claxon sounded. But he returned to shoot another five birdies on his remaining seven holes on Saturday morning to take the lead from Donaldson, three strokes clear at 15 under.
Donaldson had finished day two before nightfall and led overnight at 13 under a stroke clear of Li, but both were then leapfrogged by McIlroy in the morning.
The Northern Irishman, obviously tired by the afternoon, however when he had to come out and play another 18 holes and eventually let his lead slip to Li.
