Golf: Faldo fights the good fight

Nick Faldo was grimly battling to stay in contention for his first European Tour victory since 1994 in the third round of the €1m Caltex Singapore Masters at Laguna National today.

Faldo has continued his recent resurgence this week after finishing 10th in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth and sixth in the Heineken Classic in Melbourne two weeks ago, his first two events of the year.

A trip around the world from Melbourne via California, Orlando and London before landing in Singapore where he is playing for the first time since winning the Johnnie Walker Classic in 1993 was hardly the ideal preparation for the 44-year-old.

But he found a little extra gas in the tank yesterday - ‘‘Half a star extra!’’ he joked - to add a second-round 69 to his opening 68 for a seven-under-par halfway total, just two off the lead held by left-hander Nick O’Hern.

A birdie at the second saw Faldo close the gap to one on O’Hern and American Jim Johnson, who had matched the Englishman’s birdie on the par five.

O’Hern, who was relishing playing with Faldo in the final group, restored his lead with a birdie of his own on the fourth before Johnson rejoined him in the lead with a birdie on the next.

Johnson is playing on the Asian circuit for the first time this season after winning the Asian PGA qualifying school last month and found himself on top of the leaderboard in his first European Tour event.

O’Hern birdied the sixth and Johnson dropped his first shot of the day on the eighth to leave O’Hern out in front by two again, and the Australian soon had even more breathing space at the top of the leaderboard.

Having found the water surrounding the green on the ninth, Johnson was forced to drop this ball into a greenside bunker where it plugged, and he failed to reach the green with his fourth shot.

The resulting double bogey dropped him back to seven under par and alongside Faldo, who failed to get up and down from the same bunker, his par putt shaving the hole, but having too much pace to drop.

It all left O’Hern three shots clear of the field with his nearest challengers now Japan’s Sushi Ishigaki and India’s Arjun Atwal on eight under.

O’Hern’s three-shot cushion did not last long, however, as he promptly bogeyed the 10th hole and when Atwal picked up further birdies on the 14th and 15th, the pair were tied on 10-under.

Atwal, only the second Indian to earn membership of the European Tour, then fell victim to the treacherous par-three 17th, carding a bogey after finding the water which surrounds the front of the green.

That left O’Hern back out in front again while Faldo remained three shots adrift on seven under after five straight pars from the turn.

Korea’s Charlie Wi had jumped into contention by holing his second shot on the par-four 14th for an eagle two, taking him to eight-under and within two of the lead.