Unfortunately, while Colin was battling with the well-worn demons of advancing years, retreating skills, and a natural inclination towards truculence, this reporter was battling with the vagaries of the French public transport system. What could seem more reasonable to the defenders of their fellow workers in the French public sector than to take vengeance for the act of one deranged person who has punched a public transport employee by punishing one million sane passengers who haven't? Such is life in France – an immediate strike is called, the RER comes to a standstill, and eager journalists remain stuck in the centre of Paris, many miles from their intended destination.
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The Pink Poulter - Ian could be in with an outside chance of victory. [China.org.cn]
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Thus I also missed the advance of The Pink Poulter. Starting the day at one-under, the Englishman put together a round of 66 that took him into the top ten; now lying six-under he might just prove an outside contender for victory in the tournament.
Poulter has gained seven strokes over days two and three. The only other player to have achieved the feat is Seve Benson. A double-bogey on 13 seemed to have put paid to the Englishman's chances, but he came back with four great birdies in the last five holes to take himself to eight-under, a tie for fourth place, and a place in the last group but one in the final round.
He will be joined by fellow-countryman Paul Waring. Paul was one of those who set the pace on the first day. He had a quieter time on Friday, but came back with three-under in the third round for a total of nine-under, and he is only two strokes off the lead.
Waring is one of six players to have been under par on all three days to date. The others not yet mentioned include Swede Peter Hanson and Australian Richard Green, who has crept along under the radar so far. They will go out together in the third-from-last group on eight-under. The last of the six is the biggest name around the top of the leaderboard, Lee Westwood. Westwood lies tied for seventh at seven-under with Robert-Jan Derksen, but if he can convert the consistency he has show to date into a top-class final round he might yet challenge for the title.
From the first green, leader Echinique fought a battle of nerves with his putter and his tee-shots, the two aspects of his game that had served him so well on Friday. He adopted the same tactics, generally using irons off the tee, but these seemed to be either very good or horrid.
He gave himself a tricky downhill birdie chance from just off the green on the first, but not only did he miss it, he missed the uphill return from no more than two feet to hand a stroke back to the field straight away. That bogey was followed by two birdies on 4 and 5, but he dropped a stroke again on 8.
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Rafa rounds it off with a birdie on 18. [China.org.cn]
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Altogether, Echinique missed the target nine times off the tee, all with irons. He missed seven makeable putts. The few times he used his driver it worked to perfection. But he insisted that he would maintain his tactics for the final day.
In some ways his decision is understandable. As poor as were his tee-shots, some of the iron play in his approaches was superb, none better than the five-iron from the rough that set up his 18th-hole birdie and gave him a clear lead and a great boost going into the final round.
"That last birdie was very good because the putter just didn't work for me today,"he said. "When you are playing in the last group in these conditions then you are always going to be a little nervous, but after the first three holes I realised that I should calm down and try to play my game.
"This is one of the biggest and best events on The European Tour and I believe that I can do it. I did it in the Argentinean Open, so why not here? I will try to keep the same strategy as I have all week - try and take irons off of most of the tees and get the putter working again because it wasn't working great today. It would be very big for me to win here."
