Saturday 20 January 2018 15:14, UK
Matt Fitzpatrick admitted he was thinking about shooting a 59 after playing the first 12 holes of his third round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in nine under par.
The 23-year-old Englishman only parred three holes - the third, seventh and 11th - as he made a blistering start with nine birdies in perfect conditions at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
However, his round then plateaued with three successive pars from the 13th before he slipped up with a bogey at the par-four 16th, although he cancelled that out with a birdie at the 18th.
When asked what he was thinking about after 12 holes, Fitzpatrick replied: "Fifty-nine. It's hard not to. Up until that point, I had plenty of luck, a few bounces here and there, and holed every putt I looked at, really. I just felt really comfortable on the greens.
"All I thought of was just give myself chances on the green and I felt like I could hole them.
"Something that unfortunately I didn't for a couple and never really quite got close enough. But yeah, it was a special 12 holes."
Fitzpatrick's nine-under 63 moved him into a share of fourth place with Tommy Fleetwood on 15 under, two behind joint-leaders Thomas Pieters and Ross Fisher, although he insisted he had not played his best golf despite the score.
He added: "You know, it's a real funny one for me today because I don't feel like tee-to-green I played that well.
"I'm sure people will be sat at home thinking, he must have played well. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of good approaches, but just struggled a little bit off the tee.
"Around here it's really important to get yourself in play off the tee. If you can hit 14 fairways, there's always a score out there, basically."
Fleetwood, meanwhile, remains on track to defend his title after adding a five-under 67 to his previous scores of 66 and 68.
The Race to Dubai champion came from one behind to triumph last year and he is hoping to snatch victory once again.
"Being in contention on a Sunday is just where everybody wants to be," he said.
"So far, so good. Really good place, and a couple of the guys played some unbelievable golf and you can't do anything about that. But for me, it's been a really solid week so far.
"I'm happy with my game and that's just what I've got to go out and do tomorrow. Go out with the same attitude and hopefully I'll swing it the same and have a lot more chances and we'll see what happens."
