A HOLE-IN-ONE has its benefits.
For a start, it's labour saving. Take a swipe, walk to the green, pick your ball out of the cup and move on. When you get to 51, you are probably looking to make life a bit easier on yourself so perhaps it's no surprise that Miguel Angel Jimenez has conjured two aces in just over a week.
He did it at the Spanish Open and repeated the trick here at Wentworth in round three of the BMW PGA Championship, during an eventful day that finished with Francesco Molinari of Italy and South Korea's Byeong Hun An sharing the lead on 14- under 202, two clear of Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee.
Rory McIlroy, the event's star attraction, may have departed from the scene having missed the half-way cut, but there was still plenty to keep the galleries enthralled. Jimenez's hole-in-one on the second with a 9-iron, en route to a 68 for a 10-under tally and fifth place, was his third this season and the 10th of his European Tour career, beating the previous record of nine that was held by Colin Montgomerie. The big Scot won't like that.
Tommy Fleetwood, meanwhile, is less than half the age of Jimenez but the Southport lad is clearly keen on this labour-saving lark too. The 24-year-old's dazzling two made short work of the par-5 fourth and the first albatross of his career helped him soar into contention. A booming batter off the tee left him with 198 yards to the flag and he unleashed a 7-iron which dropped into the hole.
"It was just about as good as you can get playing a hole of golf," he said after a rousing seven-under 65, which also included an eagle-three on the 12th, and left him three shots off the lead on 11-under 205.
Fleetwood's one and only European Tour title arrived on Scottish soil in 2013 when he won the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. He has had three runner-up finishes since then and is ready to win again. An eye-opening but torrid week at the WGC Cadillac Championship in Doral in March prompted him to seek the wisdom of Pete Cowen, one of the game's most respected coaches. This new alliance is already reaping rewards.
"Doral was a nightmare and the course ate me alive," confessed Fleetwood who posted two 77s and an 80 to finish third last that week. "I played a practice round with Graeme McDowell and Henrik Stenson and I knew that I couldn't compete with them. I had to do something so I went to Pete. My whole game is better and I now have a lot more shots and a lot more control."
An, the former US Amateur champion who graduated from the Challenge Tour last season, birdied his last two holes in a 67 to hoist himself into a tie for the lead. Molinari, aiming to become the third Italian to win the tour's flagship event after Costantino Rocca and Matteo Manassero, has been setting the pace since day one but the 32-year-old knows it's tough at the top.
"It's not easy leading from day one, you have guys coming at you," said Molinari. "I could hear the roars of other players making eagles and albatrosses."
A week that started with a battalion of 10 Scots will end with just three on the final leaderboard today. An injury, a withdrawal, a disqualification and a few missed cuts decimated the tartan army but Marc Warren still has plenty to play for heading into the closing round. At 57th on the world rankings, the 34-year-old is aiming to safeguard his place in the top 60 which would be rewarded with a place in next month's US Open come the cut off point for automatic entry tonight. Should he falter, he can still drop out depending on results here and on the PGA Tour, so it's onwards and upwards in the last round. A late flurry, aided by birdies at 16 and 17, salvaged a one-under 71 for a three-under 213.
"The top 60 position is still in my own hands so if I can go out in the final round and shoot something in the 60s hopefully that will be enough," said Warren. "If I don't make it I'll do the US Open qualif- ier at Walton Heath on Monday but I don't really want to be playing 36-holes before the Irish Open."
Scott Jamieson birdied the first, bogeyed the second and then reeled off 16 pars in an uneventful level-par 72 for a 214 total, while Chris Doak had a 73 for 216.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article