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Graeme McDowell clawed back some ground with an improved four-under-par 68 in the third round of the WGC Champions in China.
However, at two under overall, the Northern Irishman is out of contention as he is 16 shots behind joint leaders Lee Westwood and Louis Oosthuizen.
McDowell had started the tournament with a 71 and then had a disappointing 75 in Friday's second round.
Offaly's Shane Lowry lies on 10 under par, eight shots off the lead.
Lowry, who qualified for the event after winning the Portugal Masters recently, carded a level-par 72 in his third round.
At one stage on Friday McDowell thought he could be forced to miss the rest of the WGC-HSBC Champions - if not also the rest of the season - after suffering a hand injury after he trapped his hand in the door of his hotel room.
However McDowell did manage to play through the pain, but afterwards complained that he thought his hand felt like it was broken, although medical tests proved that it was merely bruising.
The former US Open winner McDowell shot a 75 at Mission Hills on Friday and his manager Conor Ridge says there was some concern.
"He got it treated this morning. It was obviously quite sore because he said it feels like it's broken," said Ridge. "They've confirmed since that it's not broken, it's just bruised.
Ridge added that McDowell's busy end-of-season schedule could have also been in doubt:
"He's not going to want to miss any of them," Ridge added. "He's looking forward to going to Australia, he hasn't played there for a long time.
"He's certainly not winding down. He won't want to miss the last two rounds here either, let's be honest. Hopefully he's OK but knowing him he'd have to be pretty bad not to play."
McDowell's three remaining events after Mission Hills are schedule to be the World Tour Championship in Dubai, the Australian Masters and the World Challenge in California.
