Fixes official slow play alarm? It ‘ruined the day’ for the pros

Ewen Ferguson took a deep breath. He had been asked for his thoughts after the third round of Saturday’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic and his immediate thoughts were still fresh.

Ferguson i wanted to talk about a conversation.

“It kind of kind of messed it up,” he said.

How so? Before that, his game at Emirates Golf Club had been strong. He had led entering the day. At the age of 14, he returned. However, walking onto the 15th green, he was approached by rules official Mark Litton, who said his three was being put on the clock – and Ferguson then stumbled.

He finished 15 with a par. On the par-4 16th, he left the tee and right of the green with his second shot before sailing. On the par-4 17th, he three-putted from 51 feet. A closing bird, after a third shot to inchesit was masterful, but Ferguson was stung. Hitting his second shot on 16, he tied for the lead; he will now begin Sunday’s final round three back of leader Daniel Hillier and two back of Tyrrell Hattonwho is in second place.

Afterwards, Ferguson said he was confused by the warning.

“Yeah, it was tough, but I felt like I was grinding well,” he said. “Then they put us on the 15th, walking to the 15th green and then the 16th, frankly for no reason. I knew we were going to wait at 17, 18 anyway and I felt like I started to rush our game with a little intensity anyway. And all of a sudden I felt like I was really excited and couldn’t calm down and kind of ruined the day somehow.

“Yeah, a little sour, but making the last birdies keeps me in the last group. You know, the last band on Sunday is where you want to be. Playing with guys like Tyrrell and Dan will be good and hopefully I can do my best.”

After the warning, Ferguson’s score was the highest among his trio. Hillier birdied 16, then birdied 17 and 18 – with the latter coming after he dropped his third shot to 3 feet – while Jason Scrivener birdied 16, 17 and 18.

It was not immediately clear how far behind the group was. On the Golf Channel broadcast, Ferguson’s group was shown lighting up the par-3 15th, then viewers watched the group ahead of them hit their second shots on the 16th.

“Yes, I struggled today,” Ferguson said, “but I knew that whenever I’ve won and done well in the tournament, there’s always a day where you’re not very good. Honestly, yesterday every yardage was perfect yardage for the shot I wanted to hit, and today I had awkward yards, I didn’t like the pin positions, I didn’t like the lies I had. Not that they were bad lies, but just lies that didn’t pay attention to the shot I wanted to hit. Things like that. I could just feel it was hard. …

“So I’m just going to do my best, hang in there and hopefully some magic happens on Sunday. Finish it at the end or open a shot somewhere and you never know.”

A win would be the 28-year-old Scot’s fourth on the DP World Tour.

“I’m going to stick to my little game,” Ferguson said. “I’ll just do my little thing and Tyrrell is probably the man to beat, let’s be honest. He’s a bit of a superstar; he knows how to win. The pressure doesn’t seem to bother him much. He has the complete package in his golf game.

“But at the same time for me, it’s not all about winning the tournament. I’ve said it before, like getting into these positions is sometimes a victory in itself, and this is a step toward kind of doing things like this more regularly. And learning to play tomorrow with someone as high class as Tyrrell will be something that, even if I play terribly, will put me in a really good place going forward.

“Last year at this time of year, a tournament like this, I didn’t think I would do this well. So yeah, I feel like I’m getting better all the time.”

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