Anirban Lahiri lying T34 in HSBC

Report by Anand Datla

November 8, 2014: Anirban Lahiri was among the early finishers in the third round of the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai. Lahiri was struggling at four over midway through the round, before recovering with consecutive birdies. But it is all he could muster on a middling day on the greens, slipping to 34th on the leaderboard. Lahiri is currently two over 218 among a group that includes Ryan Palmer and Ernie Els. Graeme McDowell saw his lead reduced, but managed to hold on to going into the final round on Sunday.

Hiroshi Iwata, in his maiden WGC event showed great poise to shoot a 68 and narrow the lead to just one. McDowell was three clear at the start of the third round, but a 71 on Saturday saw him lose some of that advantage.  The Northern Irishman produced a birdie at the last hole, putting from over 20 feet to retain a narrow edge over Iwata. McDowell was 11-under 205 with Iwata lying 10-under after 54 holes.

Martin Kaymer, the US Open Champion and Bubba Watson, the owner of the Green Jacket were a further shot behind in a tie for third. Rickie Fowler and Tim Clark were tied in fifth at 8-under 208.

“I played reasonably solid today,” said McDowell, after carding three birdies and two bogeys. “I thought conditions were a little bit more difficult, colder, obviously a little bit of overnight rain made the golf course play a little bit longer. I was generally happy with the way I hit the golf ball. I didn’t quite score as well as I did the last couple days but I gave myself some confidence from a ball-striking point of view that I can get the job done tomorrow.”

“I’m kind of relatively short tempered, so I always focus not to get too angry at myself,” Iwata said. “I believe I’m doing pretty good at that at the moment, so I just want to keep that going.”

Kaymer holds the course record here and promises to mount a formidable challenge to McDowell on Sunday. “Finally I could make some putts today, that was nice,” after making the best round of the day, a 66. “The first two days I played really well but the putter was a little cold.  Today I make a couple mid-distance putts, only one bogey so I think I put myself in a good position.  Obviously you need a little help from Graeme in order to win, but I’m playing really well and that’s all I can do.”