Marcel Siem shot a four under par round of 68 on Moving Day at the BMW International Open and despite a disappointing finish the German is still in contention to claim his second European Tour title on home soil with tomorrow’s final round to play.
Siem got his third round off to the perfect start, holing a lob wedge from 82 yards for eagle on the par four first at Gut Lärchenhof, before carding further birdies at the fourth, sixth and ninth holes to reach the turn in 31 blows.
The back nine, however, was a mixed bag for the 31 year old as additional birdies at the tenth, 12th and 13th holes were negated by four dropped shots, despite avoiding a ruling after his putter touched the ball on the 17th green, with Chief Referee John Paramor determining that the contact had no shifted the ball from its original location.
The Mettmann born man was trailed throughout the day by sizeable galleries all eager to urge Siem on as their main home hope after former World Number One Martin Kaymer missed the cut on Friday.
And despite dropping three shots in the last five holes Siem, currently 21st in the 2011 Race to Dubai, was philosophical in his assessment of the day.
“I had a great start and really enjoyed myself out there with the big crowd behind me,” said Siem, who has been in impressive form this season with five top 12 finishes already this season. “It was really cool [to hole out for eagle at the first]. I had 75 metres to the flag, downwind, scruffy lie to be honest and I thought, it's going to be tough to get the ball stopping on the hole, and just nipped it nicely in the semi rough and it went in. That was great, the crowd was right there. It was awesome.”
Siem blamed a sometimes-cool putter for the majority of his bogeys on Saturday, but believes he is still in with a good chance of ending his eight year title drought, a stretch that goes back to his triumph at the 2004 Alfred Dunhill Championship.
He said: “I mean, I think I had four bad shots today, and every time I hit a bad shot, I got a bogey. And my putter was not really on. I had a chance on the front nine already for birdie which I didn't make but that was a great round of golf. I'm in there, and I'm in contention for tomorrow. I played really good so I should get a smile on my face in the next five minutes.
“It would be a dream for me to win a tournament again, first of all, and then in Cologne, at the BMW would be great. But there are still five hours to go tomorrow and who knows what the guys are doing out there now.
“I’ll try to play the same golf I did today, stay patient, not thinking about winning actually, just do what I can and hopefully the putter is going a little bit better than today, then who knows.”
