COMEBACK KID WILSON HAS GLORY SHOT

OLIVER WILSON will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Qatar Masters as he seeks the second great comeback of his European Tour career.

The Englishman (below) had nine second-place finishes between 2006 and

2009 as he became a Ryder Cup player – but lost his card in 2011 before winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on an invite three years later.

He is once again without playing privileges this season and was the last man into this event. But after rounds of 69,

68 and 69 with just a single bogey, he will enter today at

10 under with his first

54-hole lead since that win in Scotland.

Australian Nick Cullen, Spaniard Nacho Elvira, Frenchman Mike LorenzoVera and South African Erik van Rooyen are then nine under at a windy Doha Golf Club, with 31 players separated by five shots.

Jake McLeod (above) made the second hole-in-one of the week and fifth of the season on the third as he moved to eight under alongside fellow Australian Min Woo Lee, Belgian Thomas Detry and Swede Anton Karlsson.

Wilson won twice last season on the European Challenge Tour but agonisingly finished 17th in the rankings.

“I’m delighted quite frankly, it’s hard out there,” he said. “It’s really hard to get it close even from the fairways with the wind.

“There’s still a long way to go but it’s going in the right direction. It’s nice to GOLF

be back in the mix. I didn’t play well but the last four holes I suddenly found something and hit good shots all the way in.”

There were 48 players separated by five shots at the start of the day and when Wilson reached the turn, he was part of an eight-way tie for the lead.

Cullen was part of that after turning in 36 and picking up shots on the

10th, 12th and 16th, and an 18ft putt on the penultimate hole put him in the clubhouse at nine under.

Van Rooyen had also turned in level par and he joined the lead with birdies on the 14th and 15th, with playing partner Wilson joining him from eight feet. Elvira – who made his first cut in six 2019 events this week – then birdied the

16th and 18th to add to gains on the first and third, before Lorenzo-Vera made it a five-way tie with a late charge.

The Frenchman, 34, was six under with five to play after back-to-back bogeys but birdied the 15th, got up and down on the next after hitting a car on the left with his tee shot and holed from 10ft on the 17th.

Wilson was over the back of the par five 18th in two but played a lovely third to set up a birdie.

McLeod’s 66 matched the lowest round of the day, while Lee signed for a 76 and Detry and Karlsson both recorded 70.

Adri Arnaus, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Jorge Campilo, George Coetzee, Bradley Dredge, Justin Harding and Kurt Kitayama were three shots back.