Johnson takes Dubai lead

Johnson raced to sole leadership in the third round of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.

Felicity Johnson is quite the speed junkie. The Englishwoman had said back in 2009 that she would have explored a career in motor racing if she wasn't playing golf. "Driving fast and not getting speed tickets," she had said with a laugh.
If the Majlis Course of the Emirates Golf Club were to be Shaikh Zayed Road, the 29-year-old from Birmingham would have racked up a flurry of speeding tickets and fines on Friday.
Johnson literally had the wheels on as she raced to sole leadership in the third round of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.
Johnson, who has two wins on the Ladies European Tour (LET) - the Tenerife Ladies Open and the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, blitzed the pristine 6389-yard Majlis Course with the lowest score of the weekend so far.
The self-confessed Aston Villa fan fired a blemish-free eight-under 64 on the day for a seven-under 137 to vault 47 spots up to the top of the tree.
Johnson, who had started the day at one-over, seemed like she was probably playing PS4 or something as she reeled off eight birdies for that card.
Teeing off from the first along with Sweden's Johanna Gustavsson and Belgian Chloe Leurquin, Johnson was in a zone of her own. She began with a birdie on the par-4 first before sinking back-to-back birdies from the third to the fifth to take the turn at 31.
And Johnson continues in the same vein as she birdied the par-5 10th as well as the par-3 11th. She then had birdies on the par-5 13th and the par-4 16th to wrap up a magical round.
Johnson goes into the morrow, holding a two-stroke lead over Thursday's leader and compatriot Florentyna Parker.
Aditi Ashok, rookie of the Year and undoubtedly a golfer who has made the best impression on the LET this season, carded two-under on the day for four-under. That pushed the 18-year-old 10 places up to tied third along with last year's Rookie of the Year Denmark's Emily Kristine Pedersen.
Tiger Woods' niece Cheyenne Woods struggled with her putter to shoot one-over on the day. But despite the four bogeys dotting her round, where she had three three-putts on the back nine, along with the three birdies, Woods still had a three-under to show.
The American is tied fifth with seven others that include Swedes Linda Wessberg and Lynn Carlsson, France's Jade Schaeffer, South Africa's Ashleigh Simon, Latvia's Laura Jansone, USA's Angel Lin and England's Georgia Hall.
Defending champion Shanshan Feng got her putting to work and made a big push up the leaderboard by climbing 31 spots to tied 13th.
Last year's runner-up Thailand's Thidapa Suwannapura too scaled the leaderboard, scaling 17 places to be tied 13th.
Order of Merit winner Beth Allen carded five-over on the day to be four-over and drop 17 spots to tied 53th. She was in danger of missing the cut which was applied at four-over but just about managed to scrap through.
American Blair O'Neal made the cut along with Anne-Lise Caudal.
Record LET Order of Merit winner Dame Laura Davies missed the cut along with Paige Spiranac and Chelsea Pezzola.
james@khaleejtimes.com