Alex Haindl maintained his spot on the summit of the leaderboard in the Zanaco Masters after he shot a 70 on moving day, which took his total to 11 under for the tournament.
Despite playing well at Lusaka in the third round, Haindl found little joy in the way of birdies and only managed to make two of those on the front nine. They were, nevertheless, cancelled out by the shots he dropped on his very first hole and the par-three 3rd. His back nine was a lot better despite not making any birdies there because the eagle he made on the par-four 15th was just what he needed to bounce back after failing to make gains on the par-five 14th.
‘I was a bit frustrated with myself for not birdieing the par five,’ Haindl said of the eagle he made. ‘They had the tee up so we can go for the green and I hit it. So that was one good thing that happened today.’
He was happy with the way he has played in Zambia this week and isn’t too worried about not scoring as well as he was playing. ‘I would rather have it the other way around,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t like to be scoring well while I’m not playing well. But you have to be patient because somewhere some putts will go in.’
He will be going into the final round aiming to strike a healthy balance between a full-on attack and a conservative approach but refuses to get ahead of himself.
‘If you are hitting it well and making a few putts, you can go low here,’ said Haindl.
‘Like I said earlier in the week, this course can also punish you. So, there’s a balance between being over-aggressive and being over-conservative but its always possible. I’d love to win, we all would, but there are a lot of guys around the lead who have won big events so for me, I’m just going to go out and play as well as I can.’
He is experienced enough to understand that the competition is only about to get tougher. JJ Senekal and Stephen Ferreira are lurking dangerously behind current Dimension Data Pro-Am champion Jaco Ahlers in a share of the second spot. And they are just one back. Ahlers’ round three 69 means he has shot three consecutive rounds in the 60s in Zambia, a show of good form by many standards.
With the weather forecast showing heavy winds for Sunday in Lusaka, and with things as tight as they are on the leaderboard, the final round will prove to be a stern test.
Third round leaderboard:
205 – Alex Haindl 71 64 70
206 – Jaco Ahlers 69 68 69, JJ Senekal 73 63 70, Stephen Ferreira 68 68 70
208 – Keith Horne 70 71 67, Titch Moore 74 67 67, Andre De Decker 71 70 67, Lyle Rowe 69 70 69
209 – Herman Loubser 70 70 69
210 – Adilson Da Silva 72 70 68, Mark Williams 69 73 68, Rhys Enoch 72 68 70, Christiaan Basson 70 69 71
211 – Anthony Michael 70 71 70, Merrick Bremner 69 70 72
212 – James Hart du Preez 75 69 68, Ryan Cairns 73 69 70
213 – Jean Hugo 75 71 67, Wallie Coetsee 76 69 68, Jared Harvey 69 72 72, Daniel van Tonder 67 72 74
214 – Matthew Spacey 74 72 68, Andrew van der Knaap 73 71 70, Ulrich van den Berg 74 70 70, Combrinck Smit 71 72 71, Stefan Engell Andersen 69 73 72
215 – Anton Haig 71 75 69, Coert Groenewald 69 76 70, Hennie Otto 72 73 70, Madalitso Muthiya 69 75 71, Matthew Carvell 69 74 72, Teaghan Gauche 69 74 72, Andre Nel 72 71 72
216 – Jonathan Agren 71 75 70, Jake Roos 69 76 71, Louis de Jager 74 71 71, Ockie Strydom 73 71 72, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 70 74 72, Jack Harrison 70 71 75, Wynand Dingle 66 74 76
217 – Kyle McClatchie 70 76 71, Colin Nel 72 74 71, Louis Albertse 75 70 72, James Kingston 73 72 72, Rhys West 73 71 73, Tyrone Ferreira 71 73 73
218 – Pieter Moolman 77 69 72, Cody Martin 72 73 73, Toto Thimba 73 69 76
219 – Omar Sandys 71 75 73, Altaaf Bux 73 72 74, Allan Versfeld 72 73 74, Callum Mowat 71 73 75, Vaughn Groenewald 73 71 75
220 – Kyle Pilgrim 77 69 74, MJ Viljoen 71 75 74, Scott Campbell 73 73 74, Tyrone Ryan 71 74 75, Martin Rohwer 73 72 75
221 – TC Charamba 69 75 77
222 – Bennie van der Merwe 76 70 76, Ruan Korb 71 75 76, Thriston Lawrence 73 72 77, Roberto Lupini 73 72 77, Rourke van der Spuy 70 75 77, Bryce Easton 73 72 77
223 – Philip Eriksson 72 73 78
224 – Ryan Tipping 78 68 78
225 – Dayne Moore 75 71 79
Missed the cut:
147 – Marc Cayeux 74 73, Makhetha Mazibuko 71 76, Steven Lecuyer 74 73, Sean Bradley 71 76, Duane Keun 77 70, Riekus Nortje 73 74, Jaco Prinsloo 77 70, Steve Surry 71 76
148 – Jason Viljoen 74 74, Sydney Wemba 77 71, Theunis Bezuidenhout 72 76, Philip Geerts 73 75, Jason Smith 76 72, Matias Calderon 74 74, Hennie du Plessis 73 75, Doug McGuigan 76 72, JC Ritchie 73 75, Breyten Meyer 75 73, David McIntyre 72 76, Ty Capps 76 72, Basil Wright 72 76
149 – Patrick Mwendapole 73 76, Stuart Smith 74 75, Shankar Natarajan 75 74, Michael Hollick 75 74, James Kamte 74 75, Estiaan Conradie 76 73
150 – Damon Stephenson 73 77, Andrew Curlewis 76 74, Desne Van Den Bergh 71 79, Ruan Conradie 78 72, Benjamin Follett-Smith 75 75, Robson Chinoi 74 76
151 – Jade Buitendag 72 79, Ruan de Smidt 70 81, Jason Froneman 77 74, Luke Jerling 74 77, Divan van den Heever 73 78, Aubrey Beckley 73 78, Jason Rossiter 77 74, Chris Cannon 75 76, Justin Harding 74 77, Jacquin Hess 76 75, Jake Redman 79 72
152 – Trainos Muradzikwa 74 78, Keelan Africa 73 79, Jacques P de Villiers 75 77, Henry Mwanza 75 77
153 – Mohammed Zulu 76 77, Sipho Bujela 76 77, Chris Swanepoel 79 74, Neil Schietekat 77 76, N.J. Arnoldi 79 74, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 77 76
154 – Fredrik From 74 80, Brian Gondo 79 75
155 – Michael Schutz 76 79, Erhard Lambrechts 77 78, Lindani Ndwandwe 73 82, Michael Palmer 78 77, Kelvin Phiri 78 77, Irvin Mazibuko 77 78
156 – Mwalikwa Sondashi 76 80, Aaron Simfukwe Jnr 81 75
157 – Yubin Jung 78 79, Thabang Simon 84 73
158 – Marthin Scheepers 81 77, Teboho Sefatsa 80 78
159 – Denmark Mulambo 82 77, Raphael Phiri 75 84, Anil Shah 80 79
160 – Kelly Tembo 81 79
161 – Nemanja Savic 84 77
163 – Tumie Motale 85 78
164 – Beza Daka 81 83
165 – Bwembwa Chanda 84 81
