Phenomenal play and fun egged England’s Justin Rose and Dane Lucas Bjerregaard to battle it out for Sunday’s UBS Hong Kong Open 2015 crown.
Rose, who is seventh in the world rankings compared to the Dane, who is ranked at 285. But it was not evident to day as the pair played tit-for-tat throughout the round to end the third day of play tied for the lead on 15 under par, four strokes ahead off their nearest rival Anirban Lahiri of India (-11).
The two picked up the challenge with Rose carding seven birdies and two eagles—the first on the par 5 third hole and the second on the par 5, 13th.
While his Danish rival collected eight birdies including four in a row from the 10th to 13th holes and more birdies are expected from the pair in Sunday’s final at the Hong Kong Golf Course at Fanling.
Bjerregaard attributed the pair’s chemistry to the fun element as they joked their way taking the pressure off as they made their way round the course.
“Oh! Definitely and we have good fun, we laughed a lot the last couple of days, so we’re having good fun and obviously it’s nice to be up where we are playing against guys like Justin. It’s all good,'' said Bjerregaard.
Rose also was complimentary of his rival and shared the same sentiments, as was the reason why they seemed to be doing this well here.
“Yeah, I would say so for sure. You know, I distinctly remember thinking on the 16, I hit it in there quite close and almost like pulling for him to make his putt so I could make my putt and we could keep the momentum going. He made; I missed. [I] Didn’t feel so good then. Point is, we were spurring each other on and separated from the field a little bit,” said Rose of his game.
“It was a great day. I really enjoyed playing with Lucas, first time I played with him. Didn’t know much about his game. Was very, very impressed. We had a fun day out there sort of flip-flopping birdies and I made a couple of eagles out there. My round boiled down to two eagles and some good par saves,” he said.
“I got into trouble a couple of times but I was able to salvage a good par which keeps the momentum of the round going. Lucas played really solidly today and I just felt like at one point, I was just trying to stay with him. And it was nice that we separated from the field a little bit. And you know, by no means is no one else in the golf tournament, but it’s nice that Lucas and I can go and try and put it away tomorrow,” Rose added.
Playing golf of the highest calibre, the pair ended the third round of play at the Hong Kong Golf Course at Fanling with a chasing pack a little way back, with closest Anirban Lahiri four strokes behind, who blamed too much morning caffeine as he seemingly dropped off towards the latter part of the day. Mikha Singh was the complete opposite as he shot up the leader board on the back nine sinking six birdies.
Eddie So is a seasoned sports reporter and photographer having worked for several media companies over the last 20 years.
