DUSTIN JOHNSON CHARGED into a handsome six-shot lead at the $9.75 million WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai on Saturday after an anticipated battle with close friend Brooks Koepka failed to materialise.
Paul Dunne, meanwhile, continued his rich vein of form to bounce back from yesterday’s 73 with a two-under par third round to sit in a tie for 12th, 11 shots off the lead.
In breezy conditions Johnson’s four-under-par 68 stretched his one-shot overnight lead on his fellow American, who shot an error-strewn 73, leaving the world number one in pole position for the final day on Sunday.
Third at Sheshan International Golf Club, on 206 overall and seven shots off the imperious Johnson, was last year’s runner-up Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
The American Brian Harman and Englishman Justin Rose, the Rio 2016 Olympic champion, were joint fourth.
Johnson and Koepka live near one another in Florida and are fishing and gym buddies.
But the niceties were left in the clubhouse and reigning US Open champion Koepka was immediately on the front foot, grabbing a birdie at the first while Johnson carded just his third bogey of the week.
That immediately wiped out Johnson’s slender overnight lead and was the first of three birdies on the spin for the 27-year-old Koepka to propel him briefly into the lead.
But that was as good as it got for Koepka.
Johnson made birdies at holes two, four, seven and then at eight, where Koepka’s challenge faltered badly with a horror triple bogey.
The 33-year-old Johnson, the 2013 Shanghai champion and 2016 US Open winner, made the turn having opened up a four-shot lead on his rival.
Johnson gave a subtle shake of the head after a double bogey at the par-four 10th, but Koepka failed to capitalise with a bogey of his own and Johnson was always in control after that despite the tricky wind.
Hideki Matsuyama, the reigning champion from Japan, had another poor day with a 72 to leave him firmly out of the reckoning.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Seamus Power is just two shots off the lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship with play suspended during the third round.
The Waterford native carded five birdies to head into the weekend well in contention for his first PGA Tour victory. America’s Ryan Armour is currently setting the pace.
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The League of Ireland is in a sorry state. This carry on is is not going away. As a Drogheda United we know more than most what its like when ones club chases the rainbow. How any player in the lower echelons of League of Ireland think its a good idea to be a footballer in Ireland is beyond me. All of these players will be out of contract at the end of the season, claim the dole and then go back to earning peanuts again. Its hardly a long term career plan. The FAI should use the their competition as a measure of how they as an association are performing….well its failing miserably. I’d love to see it get better, even to see it get to a Scottish standard with stadiums, facilities and televison deals would be enough but we are light years away from that.
@Patrick McHugh: so long as we keep ploughing our money into the EPL and the plastic paddy’s up north then we will never have a decent domestic league. Always love coming on here and seeing guys who proclaim to be Irish fans but will then on an EPL thread announce themselves as fans of UTD or Liverpool. The FAI don’t help though that much is true. If ever proof we’re needed then just look at the photos of Delaney or Mo’N in Inchicore poring over plans for the Richmond Bowl and on TV saying how good it will be for the game here. Oh, wait you can’t, Because they don’t exist!
@David Lawlor: Hi David, what do you mean by ‘ploughing money into the EPL and the plastic paddy up north’?
@Sean McFadden: Spending millions on trips to England and Glasgow Celtic. Non Irish teams.
@David Lawlor: Ok I get the EPL connect. The other part a reference to Hoops supporters from the North in particular?
@Sean McFadden: where does it say anything about people from the North? Very clearly talking about Celtic being north of England
fai imposes stoopid faux “licencing” bs scheeme on clubs wastes money on junkets 4 blazers & psuedo corporate fluff stuff (eg. Consultants) organization needs complete restructure & repurpose. Ireland’s soccer set up is unsustainable for long term ignoring grass roots development & proper investment in & development of local LofI &subsidiary league clubs & structures.
All our senior clubs have faced financial crises in recent times. The dundalks corks rovers etc included all hv faced financial catastrophe. FAI top brass response 2 ongoing recurring situations is 2 further distance itself from domestic scene.
Soccer is no.1 sport in ireland in terms of active players and reach, yet unlike other orgs like gaa irfu fai is appalingly run wthout proper strategic leadership or direction
When will the FAI realise that you can’t sustain a two division league system in this country and how many more teams have to go out of business for them to realize this and how do many of them get a licence year on year .Have one league with 14/ 16 teams but we all know its about money from UEFA ????????
@James Kelly: I think there’s some stipulation that you have to have at least 2 leagues to allow teams qualify for European competitions. I think
@Zossima: Nah, Gibraltar (the obvious one I could think of!) only have one division.
Love to see what that chancer Fran Gavin has to say about this.
It’s sad when this happens a club . Players have to be paid at the end of the day ! Some junior players are getting paid and they hold down jobs also , this is a stumbling block also to the clubs , why would a guy bother playing and travelling all around the country to train and play ! FAI have a lot of work to do when they get their heads out of the sand