ABU DHABI // Rickie Fowler acknowledged he has his work cut out to win the 2016 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, despite starting Round 4 with a two-stroke lead on the field.
The Californian is 13-under par after his early morning finish to his third round, having made the most of the cool conditions to post 65.
The world No 6 will go off in the final group at 12.30pm on the National Course, alongside Joost Luiten, his closest challenger at 11-under, with Thomas Pieters, on 10-under, completing the three-ball.
“I definitely feel a lot more comfortable this year on the golf course than last year,” said Fowler, who made his debut in the capital 12 months ago.
“I’m confident with where the game is at, now we need to stick to the game plan and play the course how we’ve been playing it.
“I’m going to have to earn this win, because there’s a lot of guys at the top of the leaderboard right now and won’t be easy.”
Of the five players at 10-under, the name of world No 3 Rory McIlroy figures most prominently.
The Northern Irishman, who suffered a mixed morning as he completed a 2-under par 70 in Round 3, will play in the third to last group, alongside Ian Poulter and Peter Hanson. Those two start the final round on 9-under, as does Henrik Stenson.
“Coming into this week, it has felt good,” Poulter said. “Turned 40, a new era, and hopefully I can play well this afternoon and really run up that board.”
The Englishman said he still believes he could catch Fowler, despite having four shots to make up over the final 18 holes.
“He’s probably going to shoot four or five [under] this afternoon, so he’s going to get to 17,” Poulter said.
“So I need to shoot a low round of golf. I need to take advantage of the par fives and not make any silly mistakes.”
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