Choi stays in UBS Hong Kong title hunt

BY iseekgolf.com | Asian Tour | 2007 Hong Kong Open | Round Three | 17 Nov 2007

K.j. Choi

(Photo: Asian Tour)

KJ Choi bounced back from his second round struggles to post an impressive five-under-par 65 on Saturday and stay in contention for the UBS Hong Kong Open title.

The Korean ace finished the day on 11-under 199 for the tournament – five shots behind runaway leader Robert Karlsson of Sweden.

Choi began the US$2.25 million showpiece at the at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling at a scorching pace on Thursday with a 62 – just one shot outside the course record – but followed up with a 72.

The PGA Tour star was back to near his best on Saturday, however. “It was a lot better than yesterday’s round!” he said.

“I was very comfortable out there. The third round is all about getting into position for the final round and I think I’ve done that, so I’m very pleased.”

“I don’t really know what happened yesterday. I felt OK going out but I just hit a few bad shots and I couldn’t really get my game going.”

“But today I felt a lot more comfortable with all my shots and hopefully I can keep going like that tomorrow.”

Karlsson had a 66 to lead on 16-under 194, four shots clear of former champion Miguel Angel Jiménez of Spain, who also had a 66 on Saturday.

Choi is in a group of four players – the others being Sweden’s Peter Hanson (65), Australian Marcus Fraser (64) and Shiv Kapur (65) of India – a shot further back.

Choi, the world No.12, is bidding to become the first Asian winner of the Hong Kong Open since his compatriot Kang Wook Soon triumphed in 1998.

Saturday’s third round saw Choi paired with Chinese No.1 Liang Wenchong – who shot a 68 to reach eight-under 202 – and the duo were accompanied by large galleries throughout the day.

“It was a good day out there and I am very much enjoying being back here playing in Asia,” said Choi.

“I played well on the PGA Tour this year but it’s always good to come back and play in Hong Kong, which is a special place. The tournament is great and UBS have done a wonderful job with it.”

Source – UBS

Top 10
AUS/NZ

Position	Score	Player	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	Total
1	-15	Miguel Angel Jiménez	65	67	66	67	265
T2	-14	K.j. Choi	62	72	65	67	266
T2	-14	Robert Karlsson	64	64	66	72	266
T2	-14	Thongchai Jaidee	66	67	68	65	266
5	-13	Peter Hanson	68	66	65	68	267
6	-11	Graeme Mcdowell	67	66	68	68	269
T7	-10	Daniel Chopra	66	68	66	70	270
T7	-10	Gary Simpson	69	67	65	69	270
T7	-10	Jarmo Sandelin	69	64	68	69	270
T7	-10	Marcus Fraser	67	68	64	71	270
T7	-10	Trevor Immelman	71	62	70	67	270
T12	-9	Mike Weir	69	64	67	71	271
T12	-9	Scott Strange	66	68	66	71	271
T12	-9	Shiv Kapur	67	67	65	72	271
T15	-8	Garry Houston	63	71	71	67	272
T15	-8	Robert-jan Derksen	72	67	68	65	272
T15	-8	Simon Dyson	68	65	70	69	272
T15	-8	Thaworn Wiratchant	69	68	66	69	272
T15	-8	Wen-chong Liang	68	66	68	70	272
T20	-7	Anders Hansen	67	70	68	68	273
T20	-7	Charlie Wi	67	68	67	71	273
T20	-7	Christian Cévaër	70	65	68	70	273
T20	-7	Damien Mcgrane	69	66	67	71	273
T20	-7	Prom Meesawat	68	70	67	68	273
T20	-7	Retief Goosen	69	66	68	70	273
T26	-6	Kang Wook-Soon	65	70	71	68	274
T26	-6	Gary Murphy	66	70	66	72	274
T26	-6	Maarten Lafeber	68	67	68	71	274
T29	-5	Francesco Molinari	68	69	69	69	275
T29	-5	Markus Brier	68	68	69	70	275
T29	-5	Søren Kjeldsen	70	65	68	72	275
T32	-4	Chawalit Plaphol	67	68	71	70	276
T32	-4	Mathias Gronberg	66	71	68	71	276
T32	-4	Peter Hedblom	71	67	64	74	276
T32	-4	S.s.p. Chowrasia	69	67	70	70	276
T36	-3	Carlos Rodiles	72	67	70	68	277
T36	-3	Jamie Donaldson	69	68	68	72	277
T36	-3	Keith Horne	67	68	68	74	277
T36	-3	Ter-chang Wang	70	68	71	68	277
T40	-2	Frankie Minoza	69	69	70	70	278
T40	-2	Fredrik Andersson Hed	64	71	71	72	278
T40	-2	Gary Orr	67	68	70	73	278
T40	-2	Mahal Pearce	68	70	66	74	278
T40	-2	Michael Jonzon	70	68	67	73	278
T45	-1	Bryan Saltus	68	65	72	74	279
T45	-1	Mardan Mamat	69	68	71	71	279
T47	Ev	Daniel Vancsik	66	71	73	70	280
T47	Ev	Sung Lee	66	71	73	70	280
T47	Ev	Tony Lascuna	68	69	68	75	280
T50	+1	Juvic Pagunsan	70	67	71	73	281
T50	+1	Lian-wei Zhang	70	68	71	72	281
T50	+1	Martin Erlandsson	68	65	70	78	281
T50	+1	Paul Mcginley	68	70	72	71	281
T50	+1	Wei-chih Lu	68	71	67	75	281
T55	+2	Anthony Kang	66	70	74	72	282
T55	+2	Clay Devers	70	68	73	71	282
T55	+2	Jason Knutzon	67	69	74	72	282
T55	+2	Jean-françois Lucquin	68	66	73	75	282
T55	+2	Thomas Björn	68	71	71	72	282
T60	+3	Adam Groom	70	69	67	77	283
T60	+3	Nick Faldo	68	71	72	72	283
T60	+3	Rahil Gangjee	71	68	69	75	283
T60	+3	Ricardo Gonzalez	67	70	70	76	283
64	+4	Grégory Havret	66	73	72	73	284
65	+5	Barry Hume	65	68	74	78	285
66	+6	David Howell	72	66	74	74	286
T67	+7	Gerald Rosales	73	66	71	77	287
T67	+7	Sang-moon Bae	71	68	70	78	287
T69	+8	Panuwat Muenlek	68	67	72	81	288
T69	+8	Chapchai Nirat	66	73	76	73	288
T69	+8	Marc Warren	67	71	76	74	288
72	+9	Suk Jong-Yul	71	67	72	79	289
73	+10	José-filipe Lima	68	69	78	75	290
Cut -1
CUT	Ev	Adam Le Vesconte	71	69	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Angelo Que	71	69	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Ariel Canete	68	72	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Derek Fung	68	72	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Jose Manuel Lara	69	71	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Mads Vibe-hastrup	70	70	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Mark Brown	71	69	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Simon Khan	73	67	-	-	140
CUT	+1	Emanuelle Canonica	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Anthony Wall	72	69	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Barry Lane	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Carl Suneson	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Gary Rusnak	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Jean Van De Velde	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Marcus Both	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Michael Lorenzo-vera	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Mitchell Brown	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Naoya Takemoto	72	69	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Raphaël Jacquelin	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Richard Moir	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Ross Mcgowan	72	69	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Stuart Appleby	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+2	Lin Wen-Tang	72	70	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Amandeep Johl	71	71	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Iain Steel	72	70	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Joost Luiten	71	71	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Richard Finch	74	68	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Simon Yates	70	72	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Thammanoon Srirot	70	72	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Tse-peng Chang	74	68	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Yasin Ali	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+3	Airil Rizman Zahari	73	70	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Alexander Noren	74	69	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Chinarat Phadungsil	69	74	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Danny Chia	72	71	-	-	143
CUT	+3	John Bickerton	72	71	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Mike Cunning	72	71	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Rory Mcilroy	69	74	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Sam Little	71	72	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Taichiro Kiyota	71	72	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Unho Park	67	76	-	-	143
CUT	+4	Anton Haig	74	70	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Boonchu Ruangkit	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Brad Kennedy	70	74	-	-	144
CUT	+4	David Freeman	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	James Kingston	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Leif Westerberg	70	74	-	-	144
CUT	+5	Chris Rodgers	73	72	-	-	145
CUT	+5	Henrik Nystrom	71	74	-	-	145
CUT	+5	Martin Rominger	73	72	-	-	145
CUT	+5	Robert Dinwiddie	76	69	-	-	145
CUT	+5	Toyokazu Fujishima	72	73	-	-	145
CUT	+6	Alvaro Quiros Garcia	73	73	-	-	146
CUT	+6	Grégory Bourdy	72	74	-	-	146
CUT	+6	Richard Lee	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+7	Artemio Murakami	74	73	-	-	147
CUT	+7	Oliver Fisher	74	73	-	-	147
CUT	+7	Simon Hurd	75	72	-	-	147
CUT	+8	Craig Kamps	78	70	-	-	148
CUT	+8	Hendrik Buhrmann	72	76	-	-	148
CUT	+9	James Stewart	76	73	-	-	149
CUT	+10	Tang Shing-Chi	77	73	-	-	150
CUT	+10	Wong Woon-Man	77	73	-	-	150
CUT	+11	Andres Romero	75	76	-	-	151
CUT	+11	Tony Carolan	76	75	-	-	151
CUT	+14	Dante Becierra (Am)	75	79	-	-	154
CUT	+15	Max Wong (Am)	77	78	-	-	155
CUT	+15	Tang Man-Kee	81	74	-	-	155
CUT	+17	Jimmy Ko (Am)	76	81	-	-	157
CUT	+19	Andrew Good	82	77	-	-	159
WD	-	Gaurav Ghei	75	-	-	-	WD