{"id":956312,"date":"2026-11-07T20:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T20:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956312\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T20:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T20:48:15","slug":"evergreen-aussie-on-course-for-flawless-72-holes-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956312\/","title":{"rendered":"Evergreen Aussie on course for flawless 72 holes \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seemingly ageless Adam Scott is on course for the extraordinarily rare feat of completing a European tour event without recording a single bogey \u2013 but he still thinks it will take a \u201cmiracle\u201d for him to win the Abu Dhabi Championship.<\/p>\n

After three rounds, Australia\u2019s 46-year-old former Masters champion still hasn\u2019t dropped a shot as he lies on 15-under-par, just three off the lead in fifth place in the chase for the $US1.53million ($A2.22 million) first prize.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s set up the prospect that Scott could become the first player since Swede Jesper Parnevik won the 1995 Scandinavian Masters to go through 72 holes in flawless fashion, without recording a single bogey.<\/p>\n

Adam Scott is one of only two players to go bogey-free after 54 holes. He shot a third round 66 to move into 5th. \u201cI\u2019ve hit it pretty good really. I\u2019ve hit a lot of greens. Obviously, haven\u2019t had a three putt but I haven\u2019t made everything. So there haven\u2019t been that many birdies considering how many looks I\u2019ve had. \u201cI\u2019m playing pretty solid. I need a hot day with the putter tomorrow.\u201d #AbuDhabiChamps | #RolexSeries<\/p>\n

\u2014 DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m playing pretty solid,\u201d shrugged Scott, rather understating the case. \u00a0<\/p>\n

If he wasn\u2019t getting too excited, it was that, in the hunt for victory a quarter of a century since he first won on the European tour, three Ryder Cup luminaries \u2013 Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy \u2013 are ahead of him going into the final round at the Yas Links course.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019d be fantastic, but it\u2019d be a bit of a miracle,\u201d said Scott, pondering the prospect of victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some pretty serious names in front of me, but you never know. You can catch a hot round out here. We saw a couple of hot rounds the first two days, and it\u2019d be great to do it tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading the way is Spanish superstar Rahm, who shot a six-under-par 66 to move on to 18-under, with Hatton (67) and Italian Francesco Laporta (67) a shot behind and Masters champ McIlroy on 16-under after also shooting five-under on \u2018moving day\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scott is lurking next, having improved every day with 68, 67 and, on Saturday, a 66. Chances are he will need to keep the progression going with a 65 or better on Sunday to clinch victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Scott\"\/Adam Scott hasn\u2019t found much trouble while negotiating 54 holes without a bogey so far. (AP PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve hit it pretty good, really. I\u2019ve hit a lot of greens. Obviously, I haven\u2019t had a three-putt, but I haven\u2019t made everything either, so there haven\u2019t been that many birdies considering how many looks I\u2019ve had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI need a hot day with the putter tomorrow and the only adjustment I really need to make is probably just be a little more aggressive with my putting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highlight for Scott was his birdie at the par-five 18th when he holed a must-make 13-foot putt to keep himself in with a chance on Sunday, when he\u2019ll be alongside McIlroy in the penultimate group.<\/p>\n

McIlroy is currently projected to rise to No.2 in the \u2018Road to Dubai rankings behind Eugenio Chacarra who fired a five-under 67 on Saturday to move to joint-29th place on eight-under.<\/p>\n

Northern Irishman McIlroy is after a fifth-straight tour rankings title and the eighth in his career, which would tie the European tour record of Colin Montgomerie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The seemingly ageless Adam Scott is on course for the extraordinarily rare feat of completing a European tour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,12241,405163,85],"class_list":["post-956312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-middle-east","tag-overseas-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}