Miguel Angel Jimenez continued his love affair with the UBS Hong Kong Open as the Spaniard blazed a seven under par 63 to set the third round clubhouse lead at ten under par.
The two time former champion at the Hong Kong Golf Club began the day with a bogey but rebounded with eight birdies including a run of four straight on the front nine.
Marcus Both shipped his only bogey of the day at the 18th to sign for a five under 65 to improve to eight under par.
“It is the lead in the clubhouse but the leaders have just started and if you play well you can make a score,” said Jimenez, who feels he could be three adrift at the end of the day.
“I have won a couple of times, I like the golf course. You don’t need to bang the ball to win, you have to play well, focus on the tee and put the ball in play.”
With Jimenez heading to the clubhouse for a cigar and a well earned lunch, defending champion Lin Wen-tang, Frenchman Gregory Bourdy and China’s Liang Wen-chong made impressive starts to their third rounds to improve to 11 under par at the top of an ever changing and tightly congested leaderboard.
Lin picked up four gains over his opening seven holes, while joint overnight leaders Liang and Bourdy were quickly off and running with two early gains to their names.
Robert-Jan Derksen and Charl Schwartzel, the remaining members of the second round joint leaders, slipped back to nine under par after solitary early bogeys.
The Race to Dubai contender Rory McIlroy picked up two shots at the turn to improve to eight under par but will be left to rue a costly double bogey in the middle of his outward nine.
Lee Westwood, who sits just ahead of McIlroy on The Race to Dubai with just two events remaining, continued to struggle and carded a third round 69 to improve to five under par.
