KITAYAMA, Kurt USA -11

Laporta hangs tough

With a chequered European Tour history, few gave 36-hole leader Francesco Laporta much chance of hanging onto the big names on moving day at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The 29-year-old clearly didn’t read the script that had him going in reverse on Saturday in similar fashion to the last time he held a halfway lead, way back at the 2016 Trophée Hassan II. Then Laporta faded to a share of 22nd, still his best fi nish in the big league.

But maybe, just maybe, Laporta is ready this time. A steady three-underpar 69 on Saturday, to go with his sizzling 63 in the second round, hints so.

With a share of second place alongside Bernd Wiesberger and just a solitary shot behind tour veteran Lee Westwood’s -14 lead, the Italian journeyman certainly has a chance to prove the doubters of his ability to hang tough wrong again.

“I’m a di erent player, I was younger four years ago,” Laporta said of his Morocco slide.

“I was coming from a bad year and then I went to Tour School and it was fantastic to get my card, but I wasn’t ready. I feel more ready now and just try to enjoy my game.”

And enjoy it he should. With only one bogey scratched into his scorecard in the last 36 holes, something is going right. That something might just be Laporta’s putter which was hot again on the National’s billiard table greens Saturday.

One of his easiest putts of the day came on the 16th where, having le his tee shot 30+ yards behind his playing partners Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera Bello, Laporta launched a midiron to a blind pin in more ways than one.

“I hit the ball pretty straight but then I lost it in the sun. People clapping, I thought, okay, must be good, and when I got to the green it was very close.”

The tap-in birdie preceded his monster putt at 17, and with a solid closing par, Laporta feels the door is open for his maiden European Tour victory in his fi rst Rolex Series event.

“Yeah, the long putt on 17 was amazing. I made so many putts yesterday, and my putting was pretty good also today. I made some good pars and hopes of another good Sunday on the greens.

“It would be just a dream. I just want to think about my score and my game. Trying not to see the leaderboard, it’s not going to be easy. There’s going to be leaderboards everywhere. I think it’s going to be a good day tomorrow.” – John Tully-Jackson

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They said it...

“One thing I want to be better at this year is sort of my attitude and patience, and so far this week, I certainly did that. Getting o to the start I did is not ideal, but it is what it is. Just got to try and grind it out and get back.” – Matthew Fitzpatrick (-12)

It’s been great. We’ve been friends for a long, long time, and actually we’ve been close and working together for a couple of times through the my career and his career. It’s good to have him around. Obviously he’s good help and we’re enjoying it out there. – Sergio Garcia (-11) on his new caddie.

Totally di erent wind. A lot of the lines were completely new. Holes like 8,9 and 17, you have to go so much farther away from the lines that we were hitting the first two days. So that was a little bit tricky. The course played pretty well. If you managed to figure out some of those lines you could put together a good score. – Sergio Garcia again

It’s hard to hit the fairways. In the rough, it’s hard to control, so that’s why I just try to hit the greens when I’m out of position, and I try not to make any big mistakes.

– Kurt Kitayama (-11)

If it stays like this, going to have to play pretty well. Everyone is scoring really well. Might turn into kind of a shootout, but we’ll see.

– Kitayama again