Swede Stenson mixes it with Dubai crowd

DUBAI (Reuters) - Henrik Stenson had more crowd interaction than he would have liked on the second day of the DP World Tour Championship on Friday, as his three-under-par round included a wayward shot which hit a lady and a separate spectator picking up his ball. The Swede is hoping to round off a year in which he captured his first major title - the British Open in July - by holding onto the lead in the European Tour Order of Merit at the final round in Dubai. His 69 on Friday bettered his level-par effort on day one of the tournament, but it was not without incident, most notably, having dropped a shot on the 12th, his tee shot on the 13th. "I flare a five-iron right and I'm standing there thinking 'is it going in the bunker or is it just flying over the bunker' and the next thing I see it's going into the crowd and hit someone," Stenson said of the "mis-hit" which struck a female spectator. He added that he was told later in the round that she was doing okay and that he would get her details so he "could send her something nice" to apologise. Someone who won't be receiving anything pleasant from Stenson was a separate spectator who picked up his ball after the Swede had hit towards the right side of the green on the second hole. "I don't know why anyone who enters a golf tournament is picking up a ball inside the ropes, that seems a bit weird to me," he said of the incident, which required a judge's ruling to estimate where the ball should have been before continuing. Stenson is battling compatriot Alex Noren, England's Danny Willett and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy to top the European money-list. (Reporting by David French; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)