Slow starts for McIlroy and Hanson at Shanghai Masters

Ryder Cup team-mates Rory McIlroy and Peter Hanson allowed the chasing pack to close up with disappointing starts to the Shanghai Masters third round at Lake Malaren today.

Although both birdied the 384-yard second, McIlroy followed with a bogey six and overnight leader Hanson dropped shots at the fourth and fifth.

Neither could pick up a birdie at the long seventh, which left the Swede 13 under par and Northern Ireland’s world number one, chasing his fifth win of the year, one behind.

Hanson’s compatriot Robert Karlsson, who burst into contention with a second-round 64, birdied the sixth and seventh to be only two back and only one further adrift were four players – England’s Ross Fisher, South African Louis Oosthuizen and two more Ryder Cup heroes in Martin Kaymer and Nicolas Colsaerts.