Oliver

Fisher

Going into the final 36 holes, the Englishman rests just one back from joint-leaders Andy Sullivan and Jorge Campillo. Fisher has some history in this event having finished runner-up at Doha GC in 2018 and he’s making his mark here at new venue, Education City GC, too. A pair of bogey-6s limited him to a 2-under 69 in round one but today he swallowed just one bogey whilst sprinkling eight red circles on his scorecard. The 31-year-old set the tone with birdies at 1 and 2 before adding two more at 6 and 8, followed by a dropped shot at 9. After the turn he picked up further strokes at 10, 13, 14 and 17 to pull within one. It’s a welcome return to form after arriving in Qatar on the back of three missed cuts.

A tale of two nines for the Englishman who began the day with a one shot lead and was quickly trailing by some distance after a hat trick of bogeys at the fifth, sixth and seventh. “The putt at the eighth was important,” he said afterward of a tricky nerve-settler. “I was fully on the bogey train at that point. I’d played well at the start, but it just got away from me. Dom (his caddie) was good today. I hit a poor shot into 11, but got it up and down and that got me going. It sparked me.” It certainly did. He immediately made four birdies on the bounce at the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th. “It’s firmer than normal,” he said, of the course where he made 59 last year, before adding, of the noisy galleries following him: “There’s a few from back home are here supporting me!” He starts the final day two swings back of the leader Brandon Stone.

The Englishman made history at this course last year by becoming the first to post a sub-60 score on the European Tour. He hasn’t sniffed that score this week but is still off to the races with back-to-back 65s. Today’s round featured four birdies and a pair of eagles to erase bogeys on the 6th and 18th. The highlight of his round came at the par-5 17th when he narrowly cleared the water with his 231-yard approach at the par-5 17th to set up an eagle splash from inside five feet. Fisher made history last year but only managed a T7 finish. This time around he’s setting the pace again at the midpoint and will now seek out his second career ET win and first since the 2011 Czech Open.

‘Mr 59' set the mark in round two last year before finishing T7, one of two top tens he’s enjoyed at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course in the last three years. Today’s 65 broke some personal history as it’s his lowest opening lap at the course in ten visits. He achieved it with seven birdies against a single bogey. After a par-par start from the 10th, he got into his rhythm with a trio of red circles from Nos. 12-14. Fisher bounced back from bogey-4 at 16 with a birdie at 18 and picked up further shots at 3, 6 and 9. He came into the week ranked 112th on the Race to Dubai and just the right side of the bubble so there is plenty of incentive to keep this going.

The Englishman started his season with four missed cuts in the desert but March proved something of a turning point. Although he ended it with another MC in India, Fisher took T31 in the Qatar Masters before a tied fifth place at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia. He’s played this week’s venue, Royal Golf Dar Es Salam three times previously, making two cuts. Fisher was T22 in the 2016 edition and third after the opening lap last year before dropping to T52. There’s not much encouragement in his season-long stats although 30th in SG: Putting shows the potential is there for good scoring if he can tighten up his long game.

The Englishman tied Maximilian Kieffer and whilst he was never threatening to win the tournament, he will be content to have kickstarted his year, one which had previously seen him miss four cuts and then finish T31 in the Qatar Masters. He’s now up to 81st in the Race to Dubai and can concentrate on his week not his year. His front nine was solid on Sunday, witnessing six pars and three birdies at the first, fifth and seventh. It was a solid foundation, however he struggled to build on it, making bogey at the 14th and repairing the damage with a final birdie at the 17th. A promising week and not least because it was in complete contrast to his previous efforts at Saujana G&CC. He had results of T63-WD-MC and his most recent cards on the course read: 74-76-79-73-73. This week he went 70-70-68-69.

The Englishman has pegged it up four times in 2019 but not made it to the weekend. In fact, he’s yet to break 73 in eight rounds. Fisher got married and had his honeymoon over the Christmas break so all is great off the course but just not on it. Speaking in Qatar this week, he said: “I feel like I’m working on the right things. It’s a funny game. Sometimes it gives you nothing when you’re playing great; other times when you feel off something can pop up when you least expect it. I need to manage my expectations and enjoy myself a little bit. It’s easy to get a bit down when you’re not on a great run. It’s always nice to come back to a place like this.” As well as taking second last year, Fisher was T10 in 2015 so it could be a good place for the 30-year-old to bounce back.

Despite becoming the first man in the Tour’s history to shoot a 59, Fisher now wants to add to that feat at last month’s Portugal Masters by qualifying for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai for the first time. The top 60 make it through and Fisher heads to Turkey as a bubble boy, sitting 62nd. He played this week’s course back in 2016 and improved as the week went on, firing 73-70-70-68. Since the high of Portugal, he’s finished T32 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, missed the cut at the British Masters and posted an impressive T11 at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters. Form and incentive make him an attractive cheap option this week.

Twice this season the Englishman has flirted with victory, when leading the Qatar Masters before finishing second, and then when also leading the Portugal Masters ahead of T7. It’s enough for him to be 66th on the Race to Dubai and eyeing a visit to the lucrative DP World Tour Championship. However he’s always found it difficult to keep a big number off his scorecard during the week at Valderrama. He was T25 in 2008, but three times never broke 73. Missed cuts in 2011 and 2016 witnessed three laps of 77 or more, and even when T12 last year he opened 72-73. In fact his Sunday 68 was a first sub-70 lap here in 12 attempts. At 241st for Driving Accuracy and 189th for Greens in Regulation this might not be the ideal test for him.

The front nine of just 28 blows was sensational. He opened with a hat-trick of par breakers, reduced the 579-yard par-5 fifth to just three shots, then added birdie-2s at both 6 and 8. A change in tempo on the way home? Anything but. Again he started with three red numbers in a row, completing it with a tap-in effort at the 593-yard par-5 12th. He added three pars (at 16 from 20'0") whilst taking advantage of the short (315-yard) par-4 15th (from 6'0") and the 588-yard par-5 17th (converting a knee-knocking three-footer). Needing a par on the last he thrashed his drive down the middle of the fairway, played a safe approach and then his 35'0" birdie effort actually grazed the hole’s edge before he completed the record-breaker. “I had it in the back of my mind that a few years ago I was playing here to save my card,” he said. “So I tried to enjoy it, knowing it could be worse pressure.”