BMW Masters: Thongchai Jaidee surges into the lead

November 14, 2015: Thongchai Jaidee will carry a slender one shot lead into the final round of the BMW Masters in Shanghai, where the Thai ace is bidding to secure his second victory of an already superb season.

Jaidee’s six under par third round of 66 moved him to the top of the tree on 15 under par at the expense of overnight leader Lucas Bjerregaard, but the 46 year old will have to fend off a quality chasing pack – led by World Number 11 Sergio Garcia – if he is to capture the eighth European Tour title of his career.

Former paratrooper Jaidee, currently 11th in The Race to Dubai thanks chiefly to his recent win in the European Open, will need all his battling qualities to maintain his one shot advantage over Byeong Hun An, Bjerregaard and Garcia.

Garcia’s momentum look to have stalled with a bogey at the tenth hole, but the Spaniard merely redoubled his efforts and reeled off four birdies in his closing six holes to move ominously into contention on 14 under par.

His round of 67 was bettered by one shot by An, whose bid for a BMW double remains on track following his victory earlier this year in The European Tour’s flagship event, the PGA Championship.

Bjerregaard coped with the pressure admirably for much of the day, but dropped his only shot of the day on the 16th hole to join An and Garcia in a share of second place on 14 under par.

Kristoffer Broberg lies in fifth position after a round of 64, which included an eagle on the seventh hole, moved the Swede to 13 under par, whilst sixth position is shared by a quality quintet: the English trio of Paul Casey (68), Ross Fisher (67) and Ian Poulter (68), American Patrick Reed (64) and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (65).

“Today I hit 15 greens – that was the key. I played my irons very well, and putted well. Six under is a very good round for me today I think. I have a good chance to win tomorrow. They key will be to hit greens and then putting is key,” felt an optimistic Jaidee.

“Tomorrow is a very big day, if I play well like this and keep performing like this, I have a good chance. But with golf, you never know what you’re feeling tomorrow.”

“My back nine didn’t start very well. I made a stupid really, really soft bogey on 10. And then I guess I got a couple good breaks on 13 and 14 and took advantage of it. I played the last four holes really well, so it was nice to be able to finish like that. I have given myself a shot tomorrow because I was getting a little bit far behind, so, we’ll see,” said Sergio Garcia.

“It’s always exciting to be up there with a chance on Sunday. Hopefully I will play well tomorrow and keep myself up there and have a chance coming in and we’ll see what we can do.”

“It was nice – no dropped shots and I hit a lot of greens and made a few putts and kept it together nicely. I’m not super, super far behind going into Sunday but we’ll certainly need another good round tomorrow to have any chance,” said Henrik Stenson after his 65.

“To have any chance, given similar conditions tomorrow, I need to shoot seven or eight under I think again to get it close to 20. Given where I’m at in The Race to Dubai standings, I pretty much need win, win to have a chance. We will just have to try and go at it again tomorrow.

Leading third round scores (par 72)
201 T Jaidee (Tha) 67 68 66,
202 L Bjerregaard (Den) 66 66 70, S Garcia (Esp) 64 71 67, B An (Kor) 65 71 66,
203 K Broberg (Swe) 69 70 64,
204 P Casey (Eng) 67 69 68, R Fisher (Eng) 66 71 67, H Stenson (Swe) 68 71 65, P Reed (USA) 71 69 64, I Poulter (Eng) 68 68 68,
205 M Fraser (Aus) 70 70 65, T Pieters (Bel) 71 71 63,
206 J Rose (Eng) 67 72 67, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 68 71 67, V Dubuisson (Fra) 65 73 68,
207 F Molinari (Ita) 68 70 69,
208 J Quesne (Fra) 70 69 69, M Kaymer (Ger) 69 69 70, S Hend (Aus) 69 73 66,
209 D Howell (Eng) 69 71 69, C Wood (Eng) 70 69 70, L Oosthuizen (RSA) 70 71 68, P Uihlein (USA) 71 66 72,
210 J Morrison (Eng) 70 69 71, S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 67 71, B Wiesberger (Aut) 71 69 70