The Locker Room :: Tournament Report

Poulter - just two shots back

A third young British professional Luke
Donald took up the challenge in the dunhill links championship by securing
the third round lead after shooting a 68 at Carnoustie.

Northern Ireland's Graham McDowell led after the first round, Englishman
David Howell took over in round two, now it is Donald's turn after a steady
round with four birdies and no mistakes left him on 17 under par.

Both Howell (71) and McDowell (67) are still in the mix two shots behind
along with another Briton, Ian Poulter, who shot an excellent 65 at
Carnoustie despite starting with a bogey. And a further shot behind is
Scotland's Stephen Gallacher, nephew of former Ryder Cup captain Bernard
Gallacher, who scored 66 on the Old Course at St Andrews.

The tournament, conceived as a celebration of links golf, is played over
three of the world's best known and respected links courses - The Old
Course at St Andrews, the Championship Course at Carnoustie and the highly
regarded Kingsbarns Golf Links.

Joining the professionals were an enthusiastic group of talented amateur
golfers including Kevin and Christine Costner, Michael Douglas, Hugh Grant,
Samuel L. Jackson, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Hopper, Dan Quayle, Jodie Kidd, Ian
Botham, Sir Bobby Charlton, Will Carling, Johan Cruyff, Kenny Dalglish,
Nigel Mansell, Nasser Hussain, Matthew Pinsent, Sir Steve Redgrave, Tico
Torres and Michael Vaughan.

On an exciting day of low scoring in excellent conditions, Donald
demonstrated his growing maturity as a player. Already winner of two
European Tour events this year, the Omega European Masters and the
Scandinavian Masters, and loser on sudden death in the Buick Invitational
to John Daly, he was one of Europe's heroes in the Ryder Cup at Oakland
Hills last month.

"I was very pleased with my round. I think this is the hardest of the three
courses. It's tougher off the tee and you have to think about every shot. I
got in a couple of bunkers, but made par and otherwise had a very good
round," said Donald. "I'm somewhat surprised I am playing so well around
links courses. I changed my swing where I tried to hit the ball further
with higher, softer shots and that is obviously not the way to play links
golf, but I still remember how to do it. I played a lot of links golf
growing up. I think the Ryder Cup was a huge boost of confidence and you
can see all the guys playing well."

Another of Europe's Ryder Cup team, Ian Poulter pulled himself into
contention with a 65 at Carnoustie, a round made possible by a purple patch
of form from the turn, where he birdied four of five holes from the 10th to
14th. He said: "There's a nice little Ryder Cup grouping at the top of this
leaderboard. It's great to see Luke and David up there with me, and it's
great for England. I think the Ryder Cup has pushed me on a bit, but in
many ways you have to forget that week however much of a buzz it was. I
want to win tournaments and get world ranking points to improve my
position. It's lovely looking back at it, but you can't keep doing it."

Hovering behind the young British lions are some of the biggest names in
golf. World No.2 Ernie Els, playing at Carnoustie, shot his third
consecutive 68 to be five shots behind. According to Els he missed too many
putts in what was otherwise an excellent round. "I must be more patient. I
am trying to push it too hard. I suppose I have an outside chance tomorrow,
but I might need to shoot nine under par, but it's a lot of work left for
me. I need my first putt tomorrow to drop and then who knows? It will also
be good to have my Dad along."

A further shot away on 11 under par is a group including leading American
Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam and defending champion Lee Westwood. Woosnam,
playing on the Old Course, agreed with Els's assessment. After completing
his second successive 66, he said: "I fiddled it around out there. I don't
really think I've got a chance. You can shoot 62 around here, but it would
have to be something like that to win. I got off to a slow start at
Carnoustie with a 73 which has been the problem, but two 66s is pretty
good."

World No.1 Vijay Singh and Scotland's Colin Montgomerie are both on 9 under
par and realistically too far behind to win. They will be playing together
in the final round at the Old Course, but Montgomerie's partner supermodel
Jodie Kidd will not be with them after missing the cut in the team
competition.

British actor Hugh Grant, who played with Paul Casey, wore a sprig of white
heather in his bobble hat for luck, but it did not work as they finished on
17 under par and missed the cut. "It didn't bring me enough luck I'm
afraid. We aren't going to make it through to the final day. It's been
great fun playing with Paul, but we do take it pretty seriously. If Jodie
Kidd has beaten me I will be pretty upset." Unfortunately for Hugh Grant,
she did beat him by one shot, finishing on 18 under par.

In the team competition the lead is held by retired financial services
businessman Sir Martyn Arbib and Stephen Gallacher on 28 under par. One
shot behind is Fred Couples and Australian TV entrepreneur Craig Heatley
and Emanuele Canonica and former Chelsea and Watford football manager
Gianluca Vialli. Two shots further back on 25 under par are David Howell
and Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson and Steven O'Hara and Robert Hissom.

Couples said: "We are up there in the team competition. We have played
really well for three days and obviously my partner has got me 16 shots so
he is a very good player. It will be fun on the Old Course tomorrow. We
have a chance to win the team competition and I am not too far back. This
is a great tournament and I have had a lot of fun playing here."

Also making the cut was Ian Woosnam and England's cricket legend Ian
Botham, an achievement which pleased Woosnam - "I'm delighted for Beefy.
He's never made the cut here before" - and Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper
who is playing with Ian Poulter. He said: "Carnoustie is one of the
toughest courses I have played, in fact I have my own name for it ?
'Car-Nastie'. Actually I did have a very good round today, I started off
with a birdie which was a net eagle, which was incredible. My partner Ian
Poulter told me it was the first time that his amateur partner has
qualified for the final round, so that is quite an honour."

But fellow actor Kevin Costner, playing with Padraig Harrington, missed the
cut by one stroke. He said: "I was told that Carnoustie would be the most
difficult course in the dunhill links, but I actually ended up playing one
of my best rounds. I love playing here in this event and I take my golf
seriously, but I also know that I'm limited in my game, so I don't take
things too seriously. I think along with the game it's important to take in
and enjoy everything else that's going on, acknowledge spectators and their
applause and I've enjoyed the overall experience."

Also out are defending champions father and son pair Sam and Daniel
Torrance, who missed the cut on countback. Sam Torrance said:
"Unfortunately our bogey on the last hole meant we go out. It's a shame we
didn't make it."

Frazer Ogston, at 14 years of age the youngest competitor in this year's
championship, completed his third round at St Andrews cheered on by a large
gallery of family, school friends and locals and declared it to be 'an
awesome experience'.

As he holed out on the famous 18th on the Old Course a chant of 'Oggy,
Oggy, Oggy' went up from the gallery to bring to an end one of the most
pleasing moments of this year's championship. With a better-ball total of
12 under par, Ogston and his professional partner Lian-Wei Zhang from
China, missed the cut in the team competition, but he received plaudits
from the professionals with whom he was playing.

Frazer's caddie during the championship has been his grandfather, Neil, who
has 10 years experience caddying at St Andrews. He said: "Frazer handled
himself really well. I was so proud. He had birdies and a net eagle today.
It was great to have so many people out there cheering him on. He wants to
be a professional and playing in a tournament like this at such an early
age can only help him."

168 teams of one professional and one amateur contested the first three
rounds, with one round being played at each of the three links courses in
rotation. Two competitions are played concurrently ? professional
individual and team. The field now reduces to the leading 60 professionals
and ties plus the 20 leading teams, all of whom play the final round over
the Old Course.