Friday, December 13, 2013

Thailand Golf Championship: Ryder Cup stars Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose tied for lead

4:23 AM

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Sergio Garcia scored a hole-in-one as he and Justin Rose finished tied for the halfway lead at the Thailand Golf Championship.

Garcia aced the par three eighth hole with a six iron on the way to a superb seven-under 65 at the Amata Spring Country Club.

That gave him the clubhouse lead of 11-under - a score later matched by Ryder Cup teammate Rose.

The US Open champ made his move with a birdie at nine, an eagle at 11 and another birdie at 12 to tie Garcia. But despite giving himself plenty of chances over the final half-dozen holes, Rose could only par in to card a four-under 68.

The pair are two in front of overnight leader Alex Cejka of Germany, India's Anirban Lahiri and Frenchman Alex Levy.

Lahiri carded the low round of the day, an eight-under 64 which featured six birdies and and eagle.

Garcia, who is still seeking a first victory of 2013, said later: "Yeah, wonderful day for sure."

Speaking of his hole-in-one - Garcia's third in tournament play - he added: "I saw the ball hit right of the green and it started rolling. I was calling it to go in, and thought it's probably going to end up close.

"We were saying go in, go in and all of a sudden everybody goes 'wow' as I can't see the hole from the tee box. It was quite nice to see it happen.

"I feel like I played well both days. I hit the ball quite nicely. I probably didn't make many putts.

Very happy

"I'm driving the ball very nicely and hitting a lot of greens and my short game has been pretty good, so overall I'm very happy with it," said Garcia, whose girlfriend is caddying this week.

"There're still two days to go. I'm obviously going to have to keep playing well, like I've done the first two days."

American Rickie Fowler put himself in the hunt for the final 36 holes with a six-under 66 to finish at eight-under - six back - while FedEx Cup and Race To Dubai champ Henrik Stenson of Sweden is a further shot back after a 70.

Bubba Watson is now seven back after a double bogey six at nine restricted him to a second successive 70.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel has even more work to do. The South African, who wasn't feeling 100%, dropped way off the pace after a triple bogey six at the par three eighth and although he played the back nine in two-under he'll go into the weekend eight in arrears.

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