Golf: Easy for Ernie, not for Lee

Eddie Lee's charge faltered at the BMW Asian Open at Shanghai, while the Big Easy kept making it look, well, easy .

Late last night Lee shot a one-over par 73 that had him in fifth, but a massive nine shots behind world No 3 Ernie Els.

The big South African wasn't finding it as easy as he had on Friday, when he shot a breathtaking 62, but he was still cruising along at a seemingly untouchable 19-under, five shots clear of his nearest challenger, England's Simon Wakefield who shot the day's low round of 66.

Dane Thomas Bjorn was one shot further behind with France's Jean-francois Lucq another shot back

It wasn't Els' most consistent round, with his three bogeys being two more than he hit on the first two days, but he made enough birdies - seven in total - to shoot 68 and ensure he'd take a big lead into today's final round.

Lee got off to a poor start bogeying holes five and six before a birdie at nine saw him make the turn at one-over.

Another birdie at 14 brought him level with the card. He dropped a shot at 16 though, putting him into fifth place.

On Friday, Lee added a six under-par 66 to his first-day 65 and was sharing second place behind the three-time major winner.

Lee had missed the cut in all 10 events he had contested this year before Shanghai.

"It just shows the fickle nature of the game," Els said of Lee.

"It's nice to be playing on the weekend although actually I did get to play on Saturday last week as the second round of the Johnnie Walker Classic didn't end until Saturday morning," Lee joked. "Seriously, I knew it would only be a matter of time. I am hitting the ball nicely.

"I knew my game would come around though it has taken until the end of April for that to happen. You always question yourself when that time would come and it's all just a matter of staying patient."

Lee said his Christchurch coach Shane Scott helped him to turn things around.

"Shane is also a really good friend and three weeks ago we decided to go back to the basics and it's starting to work," Lee said.

"There's never been a time this year when I have felt so frustrated that I would kick the hotel door in. I have stayed patient and I'm now looking forward to the weekend."

Meanwhile, Michael Campbell's improvement continued after a slow start to the week.

Yesterday he shot 70 to move him into a tie for 46th place at two-under.

Campbell began with a 73 and carded a second-round 71 today to just make the cut.


- HERALD ON SUNDAY