Sweden's Maria Hjorth rooted in family ties

Dubai : At a time when golf's greatest celebrity Tiger Woods is having a really hard time keeping his personal life from falling apart, Sweden's Maria Hjorth revealed that a good family life has led to an upturn in her fortunes.

The 36-year-old Swede, who gave birth to daughter Emily in February this year, is one of the women in the hunt for the Dubai Ladies Masters, whose last round will be played out at Emirates Golf Club today. Hjorth led after Round One and faltered on Day Two, but she got her mojo going once again yesterday with a five-under-65 round that took her to third on the leaderboard.

On a cumulative 10-under-206 after three rounds, she is four strokes behind leader In-Kyung Kim of Korea and one behind compatriot Anna Nordqvist.

Winning matters a lot to Hjorth, but if she doesn't lay her hands on the 75,000 euro (Dh406,065) first prize this evening, she knows she won't be too disappointed.

"The benefits are if you don't play well or miss the cut or something, you don't get as low with your thoughts or you don't go over and over and over about what's going on, or why you missed the cut.

"When you get home and you have your daughter there, it's a big difference, and you forget everything about golf and just enjoy being around her. So I think that's really benefited me a lot and I just feel happier off the course," said Hjorth, who has four professional victories under her belt.

Hjorth has travelled to Dubai without husband Shaun McBride, who is caddying in Australia, and Emily, who is at home with her grandmother and is blissfully unaware her mum is one of the frontrunners in Dubai. "I don't have my family with me. I have my dad here, but my daughter is in Sweden, and my husband is actually down caddying for Bryce Molder in Australia. We are kind of spread out a little bit everywhere," she explained.