David Micheluzzi (-13) is the solo leader of the Porsche Singapore Classic after signing a card of 66 strokes on the third day. The 27-year-old Australian will seek his first victory on the DP World Tour tomorrow after having won up to three times in 2023 on the PGA Tour Australasia. It’s a minor circuit, agreed, but victories are not given away, they always cost a lot, so you can count on him for a Sunday of strong emotions in Singapore.
Indeed, Micheluzzi’s advantage is not definitive (it almost never is, on the other hand, lacking the definitive round). He will start with a one-stroke lead over Andy Sullivan (-12) and Sam Bairstow (-12); two over the Indian Sharma (-11); three over Matthias Schwab (-10), Ewen Ferguson (-10) and a certain Paul Casey (-10); four over Matthieu Pavon (-9), among others; and five over Shane Lowry (-8) and Alejandro del Rey (-8), who has appeared from the depths of the table on the back of the best record of the day, an excellent 65. As you can see, the pack coming from behind is numerous and wild…
In addition, the course of the Laguna National Golf Resort Club does not marry anyone. Just ask Bairstow. This English left-hander, who grips the club in a nineteenth-century style, with a baseball grip, was six under in ten holes today, had become the leader with a three and even four-stroke lead and also with the last three par 5s of the field to play, but precisely these long holes choked him, in two of them hitting from the centre of the fairway, and he almost ended up asking for the time…
There are many birdies on this course, of course, but impatience and disorder in the game can (usually) have catastrophic consequences. The example of Rasmus Hojgaard (-3) comes like a ring to the finger: today he was in the last matches, only two strokes from the leaders, and a card of 76 strokes has left him out of combat. Something similar has happened precisely to two of the three co-leaders at the start of the day, the Englishman Mansell (-6) and the German Schott (-5), with rounds of 75 and 76 strokes. The third, Sullivan, started and finished like a shot (round of 69), but in between he suffered an abrupt collapse (double bogey on the 9th, double bogey on the 10th and bogey on the 11th) that was about to knock him out. No, the Laguna National does not marry anyone.
Del Rey has staged a sustained attack with seven birdies and a perfectly distributed eagle throughout his card. An excellent day of golf for him, although he ended with a blot on hole 9, the most difficult on the course, where he still had to sink a very delicate putt of about three metres to save the bogey. Last year he came out here on Sunday in the star match, leader, and finished third. This time he has to come from behind, hunting, and we’ll see how it ends. But at least he has left himself a remote option of victory.
In that equation, the one of the remote option of victory, we can almost also include a Adri Arnaus (-7) who has also been one of the highlights on the third day (round of 68 strokes). Arnaus is coming from less to more in this tournament, but always in a line of certain consistency. After missing the cut two weeks ago in the last event in South Africa, he has worked hard to bring the club to the ball in a more neutral line, let’s say, and it seems that his game has gained in solidity. At least, he is having in Singapore the feeling that the ball goes where he wants it most of the time. These kind of technical tweaks always have to be referred to with due caution, give them their time, but there is no doubt that his three rounds under par this week, on a course that demands a lot of precision, reinforce the line of work.
Excellent work also by Ángel Hidalgo (-4), with a round of golf of 69 strokes armed with a lot of patience and knowledge of the field: he did not make a birdie in any of the four par 5s, but he closed a round without bogeys, something that only he and the Japanese Kawamura have achieved. For his part, Iván Cantero (-1), the fourth Spaniard in the fray this weekend in Singapore, handed in a card of 73 strokes with four birdies and five bogeys.
Finally, highlight the presence in the hot zone of the very young Thai amateur Ratchanon Chantananuwat (-10), who is only 17 years old and, for more signs, until today at least was not one of the best amateurs in the world, as he is Number 78 in the world amateur ranking. Now it’s his turn to finish, the hardest thing but his thing in 54 holes is already outrageous.
