Quiros fires in front in Dubai

Spain’s Alvaro Quiros shot to the top of the Qatar Masters leaderboard this morning after blitzing the front nine of his third round to dislodge overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen.

The Portugal Masters champion carded five birdies in his opening nine holes to leap to 13 under par overall in bright but blustery conditions at Doha Golf Club.

At the long par-five ninth, Quiros, 26, drove into a tree but after being handed a free drop, came within an inch of a birdie despite also hitting his second shot on to a cart path. Senior referee Andy McFee was forced to hand Quiros the free drop and two club lengths’ relief instead of the usual one shot penalty as the tree was staked.

After taking hold of the $2.5m tournament yesterday with a flawless seven-under-par 65, Oosthuizen picked up where he left off this morning with an opening birdie, narrowly missing a putt for eagle.

But with Quiros on the charge a group ahead of him, Oosthuizen four-putted the par-four fifth from the front of the green to hand the Spaniard a two-shot lead.

Abu Dhabi runner-up Oosthuizen recovered with a birdie at the par-three eighth to trim the lead to one before reaching the turn in level par.

Holland’s Maarten Lafeber joined Oosthuizen at 12-under after picking up four shots in five holes around the turn.