Dodt takes grip of Furst place
Australian heads the contenders at Wentworth after reconnecting with psychologist. By Nick Rodger
THE trouble with moving day at a golf tournament is that you can easily end up hurtling along in the wrong direction. Scott Jamieson started the third round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in a share of the lead but after nine turbulent holes he was plummeting like Icarus as the wax melted.
By the end of a testing afternoon in gusting, menacing conditions, the Scot had signed for a four-overpar 76 which left him in a share of eighth on a three-under 213 and five shots behind the Australian leader Andrew Dodt going into today’s final round.
It could have been worse for Jamieson. A double-bogey on the sixth was followed by a trip into the water on the eighth which cost him another two shots as he stumbled to the turn in 40. The 33-yearold almost needed a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. In the circumstances, his battling inward half of one under was admirable as he clung on to a top-10 place.
It remains pretty tight at the top and, over an exacting West Course, things are fairly open heading into the closing day. Dodt, the 31-yearold from Brisbane with two European Tour wins to his name, leads by a stroke on eight under from South Africa’s Branden Grace with Lee Westwood lurking two shots further back.
In this head-scrambling game, Dodt has reconnected with the sports psychologist he worked with a decade ago and he seems to be reaping the rewards. Andrea Furst, a London-based mind guru, helped Team GB’s women’s hockey team win gold at the Rio Olympics last summer and Dodt hopes her calming words of wisdom can lead to more success with a different set of sticks.
“I’ve been concentrating on my calmness and my breathing,” said Dodt after shooting a neatly assembled four-under 68 which kept him on course to become the first Australian winner of the BMW PGA title since Mike Harwood in 1990. “It’s like meditating and I do it for maybe 10 minutes before a round. When I left her originally I started to get too technical instead of just playing the game. Like any golfer, I was trying to get better with someone else. It’s taken 10 years to realise that maybe I had the right team in place after all.”
As Grace, the former Dunhill Links winner, tucked himself into second after a 70, the experienced Westwood mounted a telling late thrust, bagging birdies at his last three holes to salvage a 72 and hoist himself into a share of third with Francesco Molinari on a five-under tally.
In a topsy-turvy round which made for quite a spectacle, Westwood conjured the kind of captivating salvage operations that used to be reserve of the swashbuckling Seve Ballesteros. His caddie, Billy Foster, merely underlined that comparison. “Billy told me he hadn’t seen an exhibition of short game and scrambling since he caddied for Seve 25 years ago,” said a chirpy Westwood.
The Ryder Cup stalwart certainly needed to perform great feats of recovery. He had hit only one green in regulation in 15 holes but made 10 out of 11 up-and-downs and required just 23 putts. For a man whose short game and putting has often been his Achilles’ heel, this was a Westwood round like no other.
The 44-year-old heads into the final round with the bit between his teeth. “It felt odd, but in a nice way,” he added.
“I had gone through the frustrated, puzzled and semi-angry stage and into the laughing stage.
“I was wondering what was coming next. I think that round has done me a lot of good. I’m not saying it was fun to keep missing greens but it was fun to walk off with par. If I didn’t have that short game, this would have been an 80. I’m probably one of the oldest out here, but I know I still have the game to compete in any tournament I play in.”
Henrik Stenson posted a 73 to share fifth on a four-under aggregate while Richie Ramsay harnessed the menacing conditions with a one-under 71 which left the Scot in a tie for 16th on two under.