Ormsby in Charge in Turkey


Australia's Wade Ormsby completed a second-round 71 in the morning and then carded a 4-under 68 in the afternoon for a one-stroke lead at the Turkish Airlines Open. The third of four events in the European Tour's season-ending Final Series got underway Thursday at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal golf course.

Because thunderstorms came through the area to suspend second-round play Friday, the field played catch-up Saturday morning finishing their second rounds and then immediately commencing the third. There were no further weather delays Saturday so the tournament is on track to conclude with 18 holes Sunday.

Ormsby, a 34-year-old from Adelaide, began the third round on the 10th hole. After a birdie on the par-4 15th (his sixth hole) he eagled the par-5 18th to make the turn on the par-37 back nine in 3-under 34. Ormsby tacked on two more birdies - and his lone bogey in the round on the par-4 third - for a 68 and a 54-hole total of 12-under 204, a stroke clear of Brits Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, and German Marcel Siem.

"It feels great to be in this position," Ormsby told the European Tour's website. "It's a great tournament, great field, so to be up around the front is great and to be leading it makes me pretty happy.

"My game is good. I'm hitting it strong, putting good," added Ormsby, who's winless on the European Tour and best finish this year is a tie for fifth in Morocco.

"But I just walked off the ninth green and said to my caddie Richard that I've actually missed a few putts down the front nine. As good a score as I've shot, I still feel like I left a few out there. So I'll just keep trying to do what I'm doing and see how I end up."

Poulter entered Saturday three strokes ahead of Brendon de Jonge. The 38-year-old Englishman completed a 6-under 66 in the morning to stay firmly atop the leaderboard, but the afternoon's third round was a different story as he shot a bogey-filled 75 to drop a stroke off the pace.

"It's brought obviously a lot of players back into the fray," Poulter said of his 3-over outing. "Their dinner is going to taste lovely tonight and mine is going to taste horrible . . . I'm going to get my head down and do the job tomorrow. Today was really disappointing to be out of rhythm after playing such great golf."

Westwood had a 67 and Siem a 66. "I've been hitting the ball pretty solidly for a few weeks now," said Westwood. "Just getting the odd break, holing the odd putt to keep the momentum going.

"I haven't really played the par-5s well enough the first couple of days. Today I played them a bit better. All in all, I'm pleased with where my game's at. It's coming along nice."

Trailing Ormsby by two shots are American Brooks Koepka (70) and England's Danny Willett (69), while three behind is first-round leader Miguel Angel Jimenez (71).

Still well within eyeshot of the leader at 208 are Shane Lowry, Andy Sullivan, John Daly, Hennie Otto, Eddie Pepperell and Peter Uihlein.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014090/leaderboard/index.html.