Zimbabwe's Tony Johnstone is the early clubhouse leader in the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic after shooting a tournament best nine-under-par 63 today.
That left him 13-under for the three rounds, but with Tiger Woods and Thomas Bjorn only beginning their rounds, his effort is doomed to fall several strokes short of the lead.
The 44-year-old Johnstone said he felt a low golf score coming the way he had been playing.
"It has become a bugbear of mine that I haven't actually had a really low round since I won the South African PGA three years ago," he said.
"I've had lots of 70s and 69s and it's really frustrating because I've been playing really well and just putting like a complete idiot."
Scotland's Colin Montgomerie came good with a seven-under-par 65 to move to 12 under for the tournament.
But with birdies galore in the perfect playing conditions, the former European number one was all but out of contention.
Out on the course, world number one Woods was inevitably pulling away from the only man who had looked capable of stopping him from winning for the first time this year - Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.
Woods had the outright lead at the halfway stage on 16-under-par 128, two ahead of the Dane.
But after just five holes of the third round, the lead had stretched to four with three consecutive birdies for Woods from the third to stand at 19 under par. Bjorn birdied the third.
Failing an unlikely collapse by Woods on the back nine or Bjorn playing the greatest round of his life, the tournament looked like being all but over by the end of the third day.
That would give Woods his first win since he and David Duval won the World Cup for the United States in Argentina in early December and set him up nicely for the Masters in a month's time where he is shooting for a historic sweep of the Majors. - AFP