Garcia glitters in the twilight

Garcia has now led for two days.

Late last year, the European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley had envisaged night golf as the future.
And, in Dubai, on Saturday, the Canadian, who has come up with innovative ideas to spice up the tour, perhaps got a preview of what it could be like.
Following a massive backlog because of the weather playing truant on Friday, Saturday, the third day of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic saw two rounds being crammed in to clear that log jam.
And in near pitch darkness, Spaniard Sergio Garcia, countryman Nacho Elvira and South African George Coetzee played out the last few holes of the third round, as the twilight set in on Dubai.
The dark though did little to hamper Garcia as he rode on his instincts to make back-to-back birdies to come out shining.
The 37-year-old fired birdies on 17 and 18 to lend cushion to his lead on top of the leaderboard, going into the final day on Sunday.
As he and the others walked off the 18th at 6.31 p.m, Garcia had taken a four-under for the day and a 16-under with him.
Garcia, who has never finished inside the top 10 in his previous seven visits here, has now led for two days, barring Friday, when play was abandoned for the day due to the weather.
And 'El Nino is in line to adding a 12th European Tour title if all goes well on the morrow. Garcia, whose last win on the European Tour came at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, in 2014, holds a three-shot cushion over reigning Race to Dubai champion and former Desert Classic winner Henrik Stenson.
Stenson came up with a five-under for a 13-under, while Englishman Ian Poulter was tied third with playing partner Thailand's Prom Meesawat after both carded bogey-free rounds.
Poulter had a five-under for the day, while Meesawat shot a four-under to be at 11-under.
American Peter Uihlein was tied fifth along with Coetzee, who was tussling with playing partner Garcia through the third round, mustered a two-under for a 10-under.
The round of the day though came from Englishman Tyrrell Hatton. Hatton, who had finished runner-up to compatriot Matthew Fitzpatrick in a thrilling end to the DP World Tour Championship, last November, conjured an amazing low score of seven-under 65, to be nine-under and tied for seventh.
Joining him were compatriot Chris Paisley, Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin and Spaniard Nacho Elvira.
Meanwhile, Australian amateur Curtis Luck made his move up with a four-under for the day for a eight-under to be tied 11th along with Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell.
Fitzpatrick was tied 13 along with Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Germany's Martin Kaymer.
India's Anirban Lahiri was tied 41 with a two-under, while defending champion Danny Willett was tied 58 with one-over.
When the final group went out at 1.55 p.m for Round 3, there was four hours and 15 minutes of daylight left and it was a lottery on if they could get through with it. And they did.
Garcia, who began the round at 12-under made no movement at all as he bogeyed the par-4 first. He put that inauspicious start behind though by birdying the par-4 second before playing par over the rest of the front nine.
It wasnt all smooth sailing though as he had to save for par on the seventh.
Still on 12-under, there were a number of challengers lurking in the background, making small gains. But Garcia slowly but surely made the charge with two birdies on the bounce on 10 and 11 and then 13.
A bogey on the par-3 15 set him back a bit but he made a tremendous charge in almost near blindness to wrap it up with consecutive birdies on 17 and 18.
james@khaleejtimes.com