Shane Lowry fell two shots behind leader Nacho Elvira, but still remains well in contention to win his first event of the year at the Dubai Invitational on the DP World Tour.
The Irishman shot a one-under-par round of 70 in day three that could have been a lot worse after bogeys at the third and sixth holes. Lowry rebounded well with birdies at seventh, ninth and 17th holes to get back to a tied for second place at six under with Dylan Frittelli and Marcus Armitage.
The trio are two shots behind Elvira, who shot a third straight round in the 60s with a 68 on Saturday. Only three back is Rory McIlroy in fifth, who is well in view of the lead on Sunday after four birdies and a bogey en route to a three-under 68.
“It was a grind today,” Lowry said. “Got off to a bad start. Didn’t really have it early on. A couple of really, really bad mistakes and I just hung in there well, and to be honest I was grinding for our team more than anything. I really wanted to win with Jimmy [Dunne]. We had a great time over the last two days. We got lucky, we got paired together the last two days, and it’s been really nice out there and that’s what this event is about.
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“You know, obviously there’s a few good scores but there’s a lot of average and bad scores out there.”
“I just felt like I need to stay patient and keep doing what I was doing and my chances will come. I was happy – I holed a great par putt on 16 and birdied on 17, was nice and I was robbed on the last but what can you do.”
Lowry goes out in the second last group with Armitage at 8am Irish time, with McIlroy out with Thorbjorn Olesen at 7.50am.
