Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship Special Report Saturday

Today's Headlines:

• Justin Rose leads by two shots from Thorbjorn Olesen and Jamie Donaldson

• Howell and Campbell in contention for first wins in 7 and 8 years respectively

He has won in Asia, Australasia, Africa, Europe and the United States and on Sunday he will have the opportunity to complete the global golfing collection of top class wins by claiming his first title in the Middle East. Justin Rose has won the season-ending tournament of the European Tour, the European Tour Order of Merit, invitational tournaments hosted by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, a PGA Tour Playoff tournament and a World Golf Championship, and in 2013 he has one target in mind – to become a Major Champion. The World Number Five will ascend to fourth place with a win tomorrow and begin what could be the biggest year of his career with one of the European Tour's biggest titles.

The Justin Rose of the past has started well over the first two days of a tournament and faded badly over the weekend, with two Masters tournaments in particular illustrating it perfectly. But this is a different Justin Rose, he is mature, experienced and prepared and he now has the all around game to compete with the very best for the best tournaments in the game. Taking the 36-hole lead into today and both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods missing the cut left Rose as the stand-out player in the field as world number five and a current World Golf Champion. A bogey at the first hole may have in past times been a big setback for the 32-year-old. However having missed the first 21 cuts of his career and come back to the top there can be no doubting his resilience, and he bounced back with 6 birdies in the next 11 holes. He then bogeyed 13 and 17 to see his lead dwindle from four to one shot, but again he came back with a birdie at the 18^th to finish three rounds at 12-under and hold a two stroke lead going into Sunday.

Justin Rose Round 3 highlights

Thorbjorn Olesen was one of the young players I identified in my preview to 2013 as someone who could go to the next level, and he will play in the final group on Sunday with Justin Rose, using his new Nike clubs. Olesen is clearly in confident mood and fancies his chances judging by his tweet “It'll be the English Rose v the Great Dane”. Jamie Donaldson is also two shots behind Rose and still in contention to follow Robert Rock by making the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship his second European Tour win. 

The top three won't have it all their own way on Sunday. Two men who have experienced the highs and lows of golf are on the comeback trail and certainly have the potential to overcome the world number five tomorrow. David Howell and Michael Campbell were both interviewed together by Tim Barter on Sky Sports and it was quite appropriate for two players which have spent time in the upper echelons of the game and had dramatic slumps in their game. Both have won HSBC sponsored tournaments in their career when they were at their very best and would love to add the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to their resume, and continue their road back to the top.

Howell's first European Tour win came in the Dubai Desert Classic in 1999 and has been living in Dubai for the last few of winters and according to the Sky commentators has been driving from his home to the course each day. The Englishman reached the top ten of the world rankings in the middle of the last decade after good performances in the Majors and World Golf Championships and wins in the BMW International Open, HSBC Champions and BMW PGA Championship. He was a part of Europe's two greatest ever Ryder Cup teams in 2004 and 2006, and was awarded the title for shot of the year in 2004 for his 6-iron at the par 16^th at Oakland Hills in the Ryder Cup. 

His win in the HSBC Champions saw him play with Tiger Woods in the final round and beat him by three shots in the tournament and by 2 shots on the day, in a year in which Tiger Woods won the Masters (he and Howell played together in the third round), The Open and 4 other tournaments. A mix of injuries and loss of form have contributed to a slump which saw the Swindon man fall out of the top 300 in the Official World Golf Rankings. There have been promising signs over the last couple of years including 54-hole leads in the Irish and French Opens, but no wins. 

Michael Campbell last win was the 2005 HSBC World Match Play Championship, a year in which he won The US Open, also beating Tiger Woods to do so. There can be no doubting the extraordinary talent that Campbell has and he could have won more than one major in his career, but again a mix of injuries and loss of form have seen him slide down the rankings. There have been signs of a return to form for Campbell, in his last four tournaments he hasn't finished lower than 30^th place and finished in 3^rd place at the Portugal Masters in October 2012.

Both Howell and Campbell will be hoping for a turn in fortune and maybe, just maybe they can walk away with the Falcon Trophy tomorrow evening. This Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship may have lost its two big draws but you have to say that it still set for an exciting final day in the desert with several storylines still possible.

Day Three highlights from EuropeanTour.com