DUBAI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Lee Westwood was one shot
ahead at the turn on the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic
on Sunday after sinking a 35-foot eagle to stay clear of the
pack on 16 under.
The world number three started the day at 15 under, one shot
clear of playing partners Marcel Siem and Stephen Gallacher,
while U.S Open champion Rory McIlroy, who had been leading at
the halfway stage, started two off the pace.
Both Westwood and McIlroy had wanted tougher conditions to
make the Majlis course bare its teeth following a birdie bonanza
on a tranquil opening two days and the British duo got their
wish on the final round as swirling gusts of up to 25 miles per
hour buffeted the fairways.
Gallacher, 38, perhaps nervous at the prospect of winning
only his second European Tour title, shanked his opening tee
shot to the left of the fairway, eventually putting for a bogey
to slip to 13 under.
The short par-four second hole provides one of the best
chances for players to pick up shots on a tough front nine and
Westwood's blistering tee shot ended 35 feet from the pin but
short of the green.
He opted to putt rather than chip, rolling the ball in for
an eagle to move 17 under for a two shot lead, while Gallacher
dispatched a birdie to move back to 14 under and Siem also
gained a shot.
Westwood made his first mistake on the fifth tee, fading his
drive into the rough to the right of the fairway and from there
he again found the rough, this time five yards from the green.
His subsequent chip ended seven-feet from the hole for a
tricky shot for par and he was found wanting, rolling his effort
wide to eventually make a bogey and slip back to 16 under.
Siem landed his tee shot just off the green within nine feet
of the flag on the tricky par-three seventh, made more
treacherous by a gusting cross-wind across the lake, but the
pony-tailed German fluffed his birdie chance and holed for par.
Westward was wayward, landing at the bottom of a steep bank
of rough some way from the pin. He played a low chip that ended
four feet away and holed on the next shot to escape with a par.
Gallacher missed a 16-foot putt, making bogey to slip back
to 14 under, two off the pace.
Siem sunk a birdie on the eighth to join Westwood on 16
under, but his joy was short-lived as he then bogeyed the next
hole to slip a shot behind.
Rafael Carrera-Bello, playing a hole ahead of the lead trio,
was one under for the front nine to be 15 under, the Spaniard
steadily building on his blistering opening round of 63.
McIlroy struggled, shooting a bogey on the first hole after
skewing an 8-foot par shot wide and the Ulsterman then sunk a
double bogey on the ninth to slip back to 10 under.
(Reporting by Matt Smith, editing by Alan Baldwin)
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