There may have been times when George Coetzee would have let a bogey and a double-bogey within three holes get him down. However, that didn’t happen on Saturday as he posted a two-under-par 70 to pull into a four-way share of the lead in the Dimension Data Pro-Am.
The defending champion posted his score on the Montagu layout at Fancourt Hotel and Golf Estate, and after his other two rounds on Outeniqua and The Links, he and the rest of the players will play their final round on Montagu. He’s in the lead together with England’s Chris Lloyd, Chris Swanepoel and Jean Hugo.
‘I played really well today,’ said Coetzee. ‘I actually started off nicely with a birdie on the first and the fourth and then I had a bad hole. It took me a while to get my head together, and I had another bad hole in that time. But I was quite happy with the processes I went through and I got back in the zone and I played pretty good golf on the back nine again.
‘That’s kind of the stuff I’m working on mentally. Mistakes are going to happen. It’s just how you react to them and hopefully I’ll have very few to deal with tomorrow. If I have, I hope I’ll do the same as today.’
Earlier in the day, Lloyd, who is making a comeback to golf after a stint working for a roofing company in England, also overcame a bogey and a double-bogey on Montagu to post a fine six-under-par 66.
‘I’m very happy with the way it’s going,’ said Lloyd. ‘This is my first tournament of the year. I’ve put in some good work over the last couple of months, so I’m very happy to be – at the moment – co-leader going into tomorrow.’
Swanepoel and Hugo played their third rounds on Outeniqua, and while Swanepoel hit all 18 greens in regulation, Hugo also had to deal with a bogey and a double on his card.
‘It’s only the second time in my life that I have hit 18 greens,’ Swanepoel said, ‘I have been hitting it very well these past couple of weeks. I struggled with the putting, but the last couple of days the putts just went in. Today I left a couple short, but the majority of them just went in.’
With that four-way share for the lead, and 22 other players within four shots, Coetzee knows he’s in for a battle if he is to successfully defend his title and become only the third player after Nick Price and Darren Fichardt to win the trophy twice.
‘I’m looking forward to tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this week for most of last year, but you can’t get too far ahead of yourself. I’m not even thinking of the fact that I won it last year. I’m just trying to play good enough golf and hopefully post a good enough number.’
Scores:
205 – Chris Lloyd 68 71 66, George Coetzee 67 68 70, Chris Swanepoel 69 70 66, Jean Hugo 69 68 68
206 – Wallie Coetsee 66 71 69, Mark Williams 66 71 69, Jared Harvey 69 68 69, Laurie Canter 64 73 69, Jeff Winther 70 68 68, Dylan Frittelli 67 68 71
207 – Ockie Strydom 69 68 70, Paul Lawrie 69 69 69, Jaco Ahlers 65 68 74
208 – Danie van Tonder 70 67 71, Ruan de Smidt 69 67 72, Toby Tree 69 73 66, Wynand Dingle 70 71 67
209 – Justin Hicks 70 71 68, Doug McGuigan 67 73 69, Anthony Michael 67 70 72, Rhys Enoch 71 67 71, Alex Haindl 69 72 68, Dean Burmester 69 74 66, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 68 77 64, Lee Westwood 68 74 67, Oliver Bekker 72 68 69
210 – Christiaan Basson 73 66 71, Lyle Rowe 70 72 68, Le Roux Ferreira 66 70 74, Mark Murless 71 68 71
211 – Andre de Decker 70 73 68, Jonathan Agren 69 69 73, Lee Slattery 69 73 69
212 – Andrew Georgiou 70 70 72, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 71 73 68, Tyrone Ferreira 69 70 73, Trevor Fisher Jnr 70 69 73, Theunis Spangenberg 73 67 72
213 – Peter Karmis 72 70 71, Vaughn Groenewald 70 73 70, Louis de Jager 75 67 71, Allan Versfeld 69 72 72, Jake Redman 70 71 72, Riekus Nortje 70 71 72, Jaco Prinsloo 70 75 68, Erik van Rooyen 70 74 69, Keith Horne 68 76 69, Hennie Otto 69 71 73
214 – Michael Hollick 74 73 67, Makhetha Mazibuko 70 70 74, Merrick Bremner 71 76 67
215 – Madalitso Muthiya 72 75 68, Morten Orum Madsen 72 74 69, Grant Veenstra 71 68 76, Colin Nel 69 72 74, Tjaart van der Walt 71 73 71, Darren Fichardt 72 72 71, Martin Rominger 69 72 74
216 – Bradley Neil 71 71 74, Neil Schietekat 71 70 75, Wil Bateman 69 74 73, Matthew Carvell 71 69 76, Teaghan Gauche 71 69 76, Heinrich Bruiners 67 78 71, Keenan Davidse 72 68 76, Stuart Smith 69 77 70, Steven Ferreira 69 71 76, Jbe’ Kruger 70 75 71, CJ du Plessis 75 73 68
Missed the cut:
217 – Ross McGowan 69 76 72, Luke Joy 69 77 71, Ulrich van den Berg 72 69 76, Bryce Easton 71 69 77, Rourke van der Spuy 74 73 70, JC Ritchie 69 78 70
218 – Titch Moore 73 70 75, Ross Kellett 72 76 70, Jean-Paul Strydom 76 70 72, Gavin Moynihan 69 75 74, MJ Viljoen 75 73 70, Omar Sandys 71 73 74, Jason Froneman 70 71 77, Justin Harding 73 70 75, Jeff Inglis 72 72 74, David Law 77 70 71
219 – Steve Surry 72 73 74, Hennie du Plessis 73 70 76
220 – Jack Harrison 72 70 78, Ryan Cairns 71 78 71, Daniel Greene 73 73 74, Pieter Kruger 76 73 71, Armandt Scholtz 77 999 999, Stephen Ferreira 75 76 69, Gareth Maybin 71 70 79
221 – Gert Myburgh 73 74 74, James Kamte 71 75 75, Jason Viljoen 69 73 79, Bryce Bibby 74 75 72, Jeff Hopkins 74 70 77, Ruan Pretorius 67 72 82, Lindani Ndwandwe 71 76 74, Oscar Stark 71 77 73, Garth Mulroy 68 76 77, Jacques Kruyswijk 72 76 73, James Kingston 75 72 74
222 – Eddie Pepperell 73 67 82, Desne Van Den Bergh 70 82 70, Bryn Flanagan 69 74 79, Divan van den Heever 70 78 74, Trevor Mahoney 77 75 70, Christofer Blomstrand 73 75 74
223 – Andrew Curlewis 77 75 71, Kevin Rundle 70 74 79, Tyrone Ryan 74 73 76, Sipho Bujela 72 74 77, Daniel Hammond 75 73 75, Francesco Laporta 77 71 75, Stefan Engell Andersen 71 76 76, Greg Bentley 77 77 69
224 – Francois Coetzee 74 73 77, Jake Roos 76 72 76, Breyten Meyer 71 78 75, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 73 78 73, Morne Buys 72 74 78, Callum Mowat 71 73 80, Rhys West 81 75 68, Julian Suri 80 71 73
225 – Charl Coetzee 79 74 72, Jacquin Hess 74 73 78, Ryan Tipping 74 72 79, Brett Liddle 77 75 73, Tristen Strydom 73 76 76
226 – Dwayne Basson 76 72 78, Jaco Mouton 75 77 74, Tyron McComb 84 66 76, Gerrit Foster 81 74 71
227 – MJ Daffue 77 82 68, Irvin Mazibuko 79 74 74, N.J. Arnoldi 76 73 78, Callie Swart 75 76 76
228 – JJ Senekal 77 76 75, Alan Michell 83 74 71
229 – Anton Haig 79 74 76, Leorin Pillay 74 76 79, Derick Petersen 74 72 83
230 – Andrew Odoh 74 71 85, Johan van der Wath 77 73 80
232 – Russel Franz 79 75 78, Gideon Pienaar 80 76 76
233 – Neal Herman 82 78 73, Teboho Sefatsa 80 73 80, Gerard du Plooy 76 81 76, Ben Fouchee 76 82 75
235 – Thanda Mavundla 78 72 85
236 – Jack Kutumane 77 82 77, PH McIntyre 76 84 76, Richard Finch 83 76 77
237 – Drikus van der Walt 87 74 76, Dayne Moore 78 80 79
238 – Ruan Huysamen 80 81 77, Divan Gerber 74 80 84
239 – Thabang Simon 76 83 80
253 – Marc Cayeux 90 89 74
255 – Johan Engelbrecht 84 86 85