Saturday, September 16, 2006

They Should Show This Tonight on the 2:30AM Coverage

By Norman Dabell

MADRID, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Jose Maria Olazabal was delighted to win a car for a hole in one during Saturday's Madrid Open third round.

The double major champion was not so happy about his golf driving, though, the week before he plays in the Ryder Cup, and was worried that he was hitting a lot of shots too far right.

Olazabal missed out on a prize in the 1997 Spanish Open when he hit an ace at La Moraleja II's 17th, because compatriot Jose Rozadilla had achieved the feat just before him and won the car on offer.

This time Olazabal's eight-iron from 156 yards at the 13th brought him more luck.

The eagle helped Olazabal to a five-under-par 67 to move to 208, eight-under and 11 shots off Briton Ian Poulter's lead.

The Spanish player knows he has work to do on his driving before next week's match with the United States at the K Club in Ireland.

"To be honest, the driving is not working the way I want it to," Olazabal told Reuters. "Everything is leaking a bit to the right and it's costing me a lot of opportunities.

"The rest of the game is okay and overall the driving is the part I need to improve on. I'm going to have to work hard on it for the next few days."

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