Albatross fires up Fleetwood at Wentworth

England's Tommy Fleetwood made a sensational start to his third round in the European PGA Championship at Wentworth on Saturday.

Fleetwood made a rare and spectacular albatross at the 552-yard par five fourth hole to surge up the leaderboard and join in the battle for the trophy.

His superb iron from the fairway flew just a few yards from the hole and bounced a couple of times before rolling in to deafening roars of approval from the surrounding spectators.

It moved the man from Southport to eight under, just behind leaders Francesco Molinari, from Italy, and American Peter Uihlein was also on the move hitting a scintillating 66 in perfect playing conditions at sun-drenched Wentworth.

That moved him up to six under for the tournament and into the top ten along with Spain's Alejandro Canizares who shot a 68.

He birdied four of the first five holes to reach the turn in 31, and continued his prolific start picking up two further shots at holes 10 and 11.
He dropped a rare shot at 15 but quickly put that mini setback out of his mind to birdie the 17th and

England's Justin Rose continued to struggle in his bid to fire his way up the leader board as he picked up just one birdie in the opening nine holes while hitting two bogeys as he slipped back to level par.

Just as Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy also huffed and puffed making a disappointing earlier than expected exit from the tournament by missing the cut, Rose was clearly out of sorts.

This year's Augusta Masters runner up had been critical of the "bouncy" greens earlier in the week and his feelings would not have improved yesterday.

Fellow Englishman Luke Donald, commencing at four under after a pair of 70s, began his round paired with Denmark's Thomas Bjorn who had problems in the first fairway.

He made a poor start by three putting the first hole from 30 feet and slipping back a shot.

Bjorn, who led for three rounds last year only to finish in tied third behind McIlroy, did the same. He hit a tree with his opening drive and then went perilously close to hitting some spectactors who were still strolling across in front of him.

Luckily the ball flew just over their heads as they took evasive action after hearing the shouts but he could not salvage his par. Bjorn did, however, make amends with a birdie at the par three second.

Last year's European Ryder Cup hero Jamie Donaldson made his charge with a 67 to get to five under.

The Welshman climbed rapidly up the leaderboard thanks to four early birdies as he was out in 32.

Englishman Chris Wood was also making a move with two early birdies to move to six under along with French duo Victor Dubuisson and Gregory Havret.

Dubuisson, playing with Fleetwood, eagled the fourth while Havret did the same at the sixth to keep in contention.

Chile's Felipe Aguilar grabbed six birdies but also dropped two shot as he charged to four under.

Leader Francesco Molinari, sitting on nine under after two rounds, was waiting to head out in the final pairing with Korea's Byeong Hun An, who was just a shot behind.
Source: AFP