Tyrone Ferreira and Christiaan Basson ate into the four-shot lead of defending Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open champion JC Ritchie to set up an intriguing final round.
Ritchie signed for a 71 in round three after battling a cold putter on the inward nine to hold a two-shot lead at Royal Harare Golf Club.
Ritchie’s front nine was solid, though after he opened with back-to-back pars, he made an eagle on the par-five 3rd hole. Those gains were quickly cut in half as he dropped a shot on the following hole but he responded expertly by making three birdies before the turn.
Once he turned, everything changed. He made five straight pars from the 10th through to the 14th, and that’s when things took a turn for the worst for the defending champion. He dropped his second shot of the round on the par-three 13th and looked like he’d steadied himself when he took a par on the difficult par-five 15th.
That was not the case because two more bogeys – on 17th and the last hole – got on to his card to make his homeward stretch on day three the worst he’s had in recent times.
‘I started off so nicely today,’ he said. ‘It’s just that the putter went a little bit cold on the back nine. I lost the speed of the greens a little bit and managed to hit two or three putts through the break. It just went a little bit southward on the back nine.’
He admitted, however, that the back nine here is not the easiest and that it will always punish players when not careful.
‘It’s very demanding,’ he said of that stretch.
‘You need to hit some good shots; 15, 14, 13, those, that’s a really good stretch of holes. Seventeen and 18 are really good holes as well and those are the ones that bit me.’
Despite a challenging outing on Saturday, Ritchie still had some positives to draw from the testing round.
‘I drove the ball a lot better today. I still hit some really good second shots,’ he said.
Making most of moving day in Harare was Tyrone Ferreira whose untainted eight-under-par 64 propelled him to a share of second with Christiaan Basson on 11 under for the week. Ferreira birdied the 3rd, the 6th and the 8th to turn in 33. Three more birdies on the back nine – on the 11th, 12th and 14th – got on to his card but it was the eagle on the par-five 16th which made all the difference.
Basson, meanwhile, made six birdies in total but the bogey he made on 13th took from those gains so that he finished five under. Peter Karmis, Jake Roos and Vaughn Groenewald share the fourth spot on 10 under while England’s Steve Surry and Jack Harrison share the seventh spot with Jean Hugo and Jaco Ahlers at nine under par.
Third round leaderboard:
203 – JC Ritchie 66 66 71
205 – Tyrone Ferreira 70 71 64, Christiaan Basson 70 68 67
206 – Peter Karmis 71 68 67, Jake Roos 70 68 68, Vaughn Groenewald 67 70 69
207 – Steve Surry 70 71 66, Jack Harrison 70 68 69, Jean Hugo 70 68 69, Jaco Ahlers 72 64 71
208 – Ulrich van den Berg 70 68 70, Daniel van Tonder 70 68 70
209 – Herman Loubser 72 69 68, Justin Harding 72 68 69, Rhys West 72 66 71, Bryce Easton 69 67 73
210 – JJ Senekal 75 69 66, Louis de Jager 72 71 67, Andrew Curlewis 70 71 69, Breyten Meyer 69 72 69, Andre De Decker 70 71 69, Hennie Otto 70 70 70, Jonathan Agren 68 71 71
211 – Chris Cannon 73 71 67, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 74 70 67, Rourke van der Spuy 73 70 68, Pieter Moolman 70 72 69, Fredrik From 71 70 70, Trevor Fisher Jnr 68 72 71, Martin Rohwer 67 72 72, Alex Haindl 68 70 73
212 – Titch Moore 71 73 68, Callum Mowat 69 75 68, Ryan Cairns 72 70 70, Trainos Muradzikwa 73 69 70, Robson Chinoi 72 68 72, Doug McGuigan 72 68 72, MJ Viljoen 71 68 73, N.J. Arnoldi 71 68 73
213 – Jason Smith 71 73 69, Jared Harvey 71 73 69, Combrinck Smit 72 71 70, Marc Cayeux 75 68 70, Aubrey Beckley 75 68 70, Teboho Sefatsa 71 70 72, Mark Williams 71 68 74
214 – Matthew Carvell 73 71 70, Franklin Manchest 72 71 71, Wynand Dingle 71 72 71, Jacquin Hess 69 73 72, Bennie van der Merwe 72 69 73
215 – Damon Stephenson 75 69 71, Anthony Michael 72 71 72, David McIntyre 69 72 74, Oliver Bekker 71 69 75, Andrew van der Knaap 67 72 76
216 – Toto Thimba 73 70 73, Luke Jerling 69 73 74
217 – Duane Keun 74 70 73, Ockie Strydom 70 74 73, Jaco Prinsloo 71 73 73, Keenan Davidse 78 66 73
218 – Erhard Lambrechts 74 68 76
220 – Anton Haig 72 67 81
Credit: Sunshine Tour
