ABU DHABI // Jordan Spieth’s presence in the field this week has led to vastly swollen galleries. If not to record proportions – the figures will be confirmed only after the event – then Friday’s crowd in particular was at least a reminder of the two years when Tigers Woods competed in the capital.
He bears the limelight well. The 22-year-old Texan’s patience with understandably eager autograph hunters, for instance, is admirable.
The security personnel deployed to look after the headline acts at this competition have seemed more agitated with the bustle around him than the world No 1 himself ever has.
Everyone has wanted a piece of him. And, so keen has Spieth been to spread the wealth, he even decided to join an impromptu six-ball while playing the ninth – his 18th on Round 3 – on Saturday evening.
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The 2015 PGA Tour player of the year reckoned finishing the hole might save him as much of five hours at the golf course ahead of his final round. Time to snooze, go to the gym, and ponder how to make up the three shots he currently trails the leaders by.
“I can do a little more than I would have been able to do if we were up before 5am,” Spieth, who is 7 under-par after his third round, said.
Racing to become just the fifth match out of the 25 on the course to finish their third round meant catching up, and then joining in with, the group ahead at the end of another day hindered by thick early morning fog.
Eddie Pepperell, Tyrell Hatton and Kiridech Aphibarnrat had themselves been forced to wait on the tee when Andy Sullivan had to reload his drive after losing his ball in the lead group.
Because the morning’s play was delayed by around three hours, the organisers had again set the players off from the first and 10th tees in order to make up the lost time.
The hurried finish was knocked out of kilter when Sullivan, who was leading, fired his tee-shot somewhere between the ninth fairway and the water. Despite a long search involving marshalls, cameramen, and his playing partner Rory McIlroy, Sullivan had to head back to start the hole again.
The trio that were held up seemed only too happy to play an all-in hole with Spieth and his playing partners Soren Kjeldsen and Pablo Larrazabal.
“I haven’t played a six-ball before,” Spieth said. “That was a first. We didn’t really know what to do. We were all asking the guys in front of us, if you guys want to, just go finish and we’ll play behind you, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
“They didn’t really mind. Pablo just decided to go ahead and hit so we figured we may as well just hit them. They didn’t care at all. They’re good guys.”
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