Fraser takes lead at Hong Kong Open

Published February 05, 2015

Fanling, Hong Kong (SportsNetwork.com) - Marcus Fraser carded a third- round, 5-under 65 on Saturday and he vaulted into the lead at the Hong Kong Open heading into the final round.

Fraser, who has two career victories on the European Tour, finished 54 holes at 11-under-par 199 and he has a 1-shot lead over fellow Australian Scott Hend. Fraser's last win came at the 2010 Ballantine's Championship. This is Fraser's first tournament since February as he was recovering from a hand injury.

"Nobody's more surprised than I am that's for sure," Fraser said. "After eight months of sitting on the couch -- it hasn't been the best eight months, but when you play like that it makes it worthwhile."

Hend fired a 3-under 67 on Saturday to jump into sole possession of second place at 10-under 200. Jbe Kruger (66), Mark Foster (66) and Angelo Que (67) are tied for third at 9-under 201 at Hong Kong Golf Club.

Second-round leader Ernie Els shot a 1-over 71 to fall into a tie for sixth place at minus-8. He is joined there by first-round leader Jyoti Randhawa (68), Javier Colomo (64), Cameron Smith (69) and Raphael Jacquelin (69).

Fraser, beginning the day two shots behind the leader Els, did not start off in the right direction with a bogey at the first. Fraser responded two holes later with a birdie on the third to get back to even par for the day. Following a trio of pars from No. 4, Fraser drained his second birdie on No. 7 and he closed out the front nine with two more pars.

The back nine is where Fraser made his move to the top of the leaderboard. After three more pars from 10, Fraser made back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 to get to minus-3. He finished off his round with birdies on 16 and 18, which gave Fraser a 1-shot lead going into the final day.

"Practice last week felt really good so I felt like I was heading in the right direction, finally, after I started practicing six or seven weeks ago," said Fraser. "It was going okay, but then last week it felt like everything fell into place, but then coming out and playing a tournament is just a completely different thing so after not playing for eight months I wasn't too sure what to expect. To come and play the way I did on the back nine today was pretty pleasing."

Hend started his round on fire with three straight birdies from No. 1. Following four straight pars, Hend tripped to his first bogey on No. 8, dropping him back to minus-2 for the day.

Making the turn at 2-under, Hend dropped another shot with a bogey on No. 11, but he rebounded nicely with a birdie on No. 12. Hend's third bogey on No. 14. was canceled out by a pair of birdies on 15 and 16, getting him back to 3- under for the day. Hend finished with a pair of pars to end there.

NOTES: Fraser's last event was at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year, where he had to withdraw ... Hend has never won on the European Tour, with his best finish of the season coming at the WGC - Cadillac Championship, where he tied for 16th ... The best round of the day on Saturday went to Colomo, which got him into a tie for sixth.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/fraser-takes-lead-at-hong-kong-open