England’s Luke Donald put himself back in the Ryder Cup frame after a stunning 65, five under par, at Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio, took him to four under par 206 and into the top ten of the World Golf Championships – NEC Invitational, seven adrift of leader Stewart Cink of America.
Donald needs to finish no worse than joint second to have any chance of climbing from tenth to within the top five of the Ryder Cup World Points List to earn automatic qualification for the European Team but with only a handful of players ahead of him going into the final round, Donald has done his chances the world of good as he leads the European Tour challenge.
Donald, who won his maiden European Tour title last month with victory in the Scandinavian Masters by Carlsberg, raced to the turn in 31 with four birdies and then added three more on the back nine, dropping shots on the 13th and 15th, for an impressive 65.
The man he has to overtake in the World Points List however is fellow Englishman Lee Westwood who is also going well at three under par 207 after a third successive 69. Westwood occupies fifth place in the World Points List with the top five qualifying for The 35th Ryder Cup Matches at Oakland Hills, Bloomfield Township, Michigan, USA, after tomorrow’s final round.
Argtentina’s Angel Cabrera lies a stroke ahead of Westwood on four under par after a third round 67.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia fell back to two under par after spoiling what looked as if it would be a bogey free round when he double bogeyed the last for a round of 70.
He lies one shot ahead of Swede Fredrik Jacobson and defending champion Darren Clarke, both shooting rounds of 68 to lie one under par.
Jacobson is currently just outside the qualifying places for The Ryder Cup, lying sixth on the World Points List and 12th on the combined standings but has kept his hopes of a Ryder Cup debut alive going into the final round.
The other sub plot this week involved the battle for the Number One spot in the Official World Golf Rankings but Tiger Woods has responded to the challenge laid down by World Number Two Vijay Singh and World Number Three Ernie Els.
Woods, chasing a fourth WGC – NEC Invitational title, will go into the final round tied second with Chris DiMarco and David Toms, five adrift of fellow American Cink.
Cink, three ahead at the start of the day after opening rounds of 63 and 68, got off to the perfect start with two birdies in his first three holes but followed that with 13 pars and one bogey before chipping in on the last for a birdie three for a 68 to remain in control of the tournament at 11 under par 199.
Woods was clearly out of sorts off the tee but holed a number of clutch putts to shoot level par 70 to remain in touch with the lead.
