{"id":7274,"date":"2012-01-22T08:58:33","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T06:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/golf-veteran-olazabal-attempting-to-end-seven-year-title-wait\/"},"modified":"2012-01-22T08:58:33","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T06:58:33","slug":"golf-veteran-olazabal-attempting-to-end-seven-year-title-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-veteran-olazabal-attempting-to-end-seven-year-title-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Veteran Olazabal attempting to end seven-year title wait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">GEORGE, South Africa<\/span> Jan 21 (Reuters) &#8211; European Ryder Cup<br \/>\ncaptain Jose Maria Olazabal is chasing a fairytale victory after<br \/>\nsurging to within two shots of the leaders in the third round of<br \/>\nthe Volvo Golf Champions event on Saturday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old is the lowest-ranked player in the field at<br \/>\nnumber 596 but a one-under 72 gave the Spaniard an eight-under<br \/>\ntally of 211, two behind Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts (69) and<br \/>\nSouth African Branden Grace (75).<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Olazabal, who won the U.S. Masters in 1994 and 1999, has<br \/>\nstruggled badly with rheumatism and has made only sporadic<br \/>\nappearances on the European Tour in recent years.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is always a chance you might not win again when your<br \/>\ngame is off,&#8221; he told reporters. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to be positive at<br \/>\ntimes but I know I can fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Olazabal, who will skipper holders Europe in the biennial<br \/>\nRyder Cup match against the United States in Illinois in<br \/>\nSeptember, has won 23 times in a glittering career on the tour.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The popular Spaniard&#8217;s last victory came at the Mallorca<br \/>\nClassic in 2005 and he had to dig deep to keep his title<br \/>\naspirations alive on Saturday when blustery winds and steady<br \/>\nrain sent scores rocketing.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A wayward drive at the first hole cost Olazabal a bogey five<br \/>\nand he also found trouble at the par-three 17th where he carded<br \/>\na five.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would mean a lot (to win),&#8221; he said after ending his<br \/>\nround with four birdies in the last six holes. &#8220;I&#8217;m excited<br \/>\nabout what I have to do tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be a great achievement just to hit seven or eight<br \/>\nsolid drives &#8211; as I do on the practice range.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Writing by Tony Jimenez in London, Editing by Ken Ferris;<br \/>\nTo query or comment on this story email<br \/>\nsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GEORGE, South Africa Jan 21 (Reuters) &#8211; European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal is chasing a fairytale victory after surging to within two shots of the leaders in the third round of the Volvo Golf Champions event on Saturday. The 45-year-old is the lowest-ranked player in the field at number 596 but a one-under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}