Tom McKibbin carded a third-round 69 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and will head into the final round within striking distance of the leaders thanks to a birdie-birdie finish.
Starting the day seven shots back at -5, an opening bogey that included a missed three-footer was far from the ideal beginning, but he bounced back to reel off three birdies on the spin thanks to well executed greenside bunker shots on the short par-4 second and par-5 third, before pouring in a 45-footer on the par-3 fourth.
Having missed the fairway left on nine, an overly aggressive approach found the hazard, but he was happy to walk off with bogey after getting up-and-down from 126 yards to complete an opening nine of 34.
Good birdie chances came and went at 10 and 11, but having found the fairway on the par-5 13th, he needed to thread his approach through two palm trees and the execution was perfect, the ball squeezing through the gap before fading towards the pin where it landed just over the bunker and ran up to three-and-a-half feet and he rolled in the eagle putt to move to -8.
But there was more Jekyll and Hyde yet to come, and another superb bunker save on 14 was followed by back-to-back misses from inside six feet for par on 15 and 16, leaving him facing into the final two holes in danger of throwing a good round away.
But on the drivable par-4 17th, from short and left in the rough, he pitched to nine feet and re-found his touch with the putter, sinking a nine-footer for birdie to head to 18 with a spot in the provisional top five within reach.
After finding the rough off the tee, he laid up short of the water and stuck his wedge to eight feet and rolled in his second successive birdie putt to card a 69 that moved him to -8.
With the leaders dropping shots towards the back end of the round, he’ll likely find himself within four or five strokes going into the final round.
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