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By Kent Gray
Demonstrative and streaky. Pablo Larrazábal is playing the archetypal Spaniard at the upgraded Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and it could very well snare him a second Falcon trophy in six years.

The 35-year-old from Barcelona birdied his final hole Friday to cap a third round 68 and add more reel to a week of TV worthy highlights. It moved him to -11 for the championship, six shots behind Shane Lowry but not a million miles away from a fifth European Tour title.

Even Larrazábal concedes he is likely to need something magic on Saturday given how composed the Irish frontrunner has been thus far. But as he illustrated with a hole-out eagle, chip-in birdie, up-and-down birdie finish in his first round 67, anything is possible.

The 2014 champion started as fast on Friday as he’d ended on Wednesday, rattling off three successive birdies and making The National course’s turn in 32, four under. He conjured up three sand saves after finding five bunkers on successive holes and while there was a bogey blip on 13 when he missed a short putt, the birdie close has him dreaming of a first European Tour win since his 2015 BMW International triumph.

“It all depends on Shane. Shane is ahead big time,” Larrazábal said of his final round chances. “Right now I shoot four-under in these conditions, and I was five behind and I’m still five behind. It looks like he’s playing great in all the conditions.

“But yeah, I’ve been up there a couple times. I beat Rory and Mickelson in 2014 down the stretch, and I hold Dustin Johnson in 2017 down the stretch, as well. He had to make like a 40-footer on the last to tie me. I will go out there tomorrow to try to play my game, have fun and try to make quick birdies to close the gap.”

Larrazábal’s game is all about being creative with his shot-making. You know, typically Spanish.

“I needed it today. Yesterday when I saw the forecast and I knew that there was some wind coming, it put a little smile on me. You know, I miss a lot from the tee with no wind in perfect conditions, and I’m going to still be missing a lot in poor conditions, [but] the people are going to miss more.

“I play my game when it’s a lot of wind, you know, hit 5-woods on par 4s from the rough and all that kind of stuff, up-and-down from everywhere to try to save pars and take the chances with the good shots. It’s the game I’ve always played and that’s, you know, that’s how I am.

“It [the 68] was much better even than the 67 the first day. I played great. Probably the golf game wasn’t that good, but the mental game was 10 out of 10.”