Louis fixes his swing on way to SA Open lead

Louis Oosthuizen had to tinker with his swing on Saturday during the third round of the South African Open Championship hosted by City of Joburg, but he still managed to fire a four-under-par 67 at Randpark Golf Club.

His six birdies and two bogeys gave him the best round of a strangely gusty highveld December day and a three-stroke lead over England’s Matt Wallace, Zambian Madalitso Muthiya and his old friend Charl Schwartzel, as the 2010 Open champion seeks to win his first national open title.

“When things looked difficult early on in the round, I thought I was okay,” said Oosthuizen. “And then I hit some errant tee shots on five and six and 10 and 11. So I went back to hitting just a knock-down cut sort of shot with my driver on 12 and 13, and then 14 I felt comfortable again over it. You get those things during a round. Your tempo changes a little bit and you just need to fix it quickly before you start thinking about it too much.”

It was a day on which his putting, as much as any other part of his game, kept him ahead of the chasing pack. “I feel comfortable with the putter,” he said. “I’ve been working on a few things with it and I feel really solid over it. But for my heart, I want to hit it a little closer than I did today. I made a lot of saving par putts, but all in all, it’s just rolling nicely.”

A string of five pars in a row around the turn seemed to suggest things had gone quiet for him, but them he made three birdies in four holes to ignite his round again. “After the big par-save on 10, 12 was a crucial birdie, I felt, into the wind. And 14, I only had gap wedge into that par-five today and I needed another yard for it to be really good. It ended up a tough up-and-down for birdie. Then I made a good swing on 15 and birdied it. I sometimes feel the into-the-wind shots are easier to control than the downwind.”

Wallace had a topsy-turvy homeward nine on his way to a three-under 68, with three bogeys, three pars and three birdies. It was the birdie on 18 that pleased him most. “That birdie on the last was the biggest putt of the week so far for me,” he said. “I thought I’d hit it a bit too hard but thankfully, it was on line. I hit everything I had in my line today which was massive.”

Muthiya had a penalty for a double-hit on the fifth when he tried to knock his ball out of the fringe with a fairway wood. The resulting double-bogey was joined on his card by another on the 10^th, but he held things together for a level-par round to keep himself in contention. “I’m very proud of how I was able to fight back,” he said. “Under the circumstances, the conditions, just being able to do that, making two birdies on the stretch was actually good.”

Schwartzel could hardly find a fairway during his round of one-over-par 72, but he was pleased to be able to stay in contention. “I don’t know what the forecast is tomorrow, but I am playing well,” he said. “I putted slightly better the first two days. I just have to find the game that I had the first two days. It is there somewhere, it is not far away. Three shots back is close enough to make Louis scared.”

Oosthuizen has led after 54 holes 14 times in his career, and gone on to win on eight of those occasions. So he knows what’s required. “I just need to go out tomorrow and do the same as I did today,” he said.

Scores:

199 - Louis Oosthuizen 62 70 67

202 - Matt Wallace 65 69 68, Madalitso Muthiya 63 68 71, Charl Schwartzel 67 63 72

205 - Ernie Els 66 71 68, Robert Macintyre 70 67 68, Jeff Winther 68 69 68, Bernd Ritthammer 67 69 69, Adilson Da Silva 66 70 69, Branden Grace 66 68 71, Mark Williams 65 68 72, Jbe' Kruger 66 67 72

206 - Tapio Pulkkanen 69 69 68, Stuart Manley 67 71 68, Haydn Porteous 68 70 68, Jake Roos 66 72 68, Daniel Greene 70 68 68, Romain Langasque 69 68 69, Matias Calderon 68 71 67, Zander Lombard 64 68 74, Kurt Kitayama 63 69 74

207 - Anthony Michael 67 71 69, Jovan Rebula 67 70 70, Oliver Wilson 73 66 68, Thomas Aiken 67 68 72, Yikeun Chang 70 65 72, Chris Paisley 70 70 67

208 - David McIntyre 66 72 70, Joel Girrbach 70 69 69, Steven Brown 71 68 69, Bryce Easton 68 69 71, Ewen Ferguson 69 68 71

209 - Max Schmitt 66 72 71, Brandon Stone 71 67 71, Matthew Nixon 69 69 71, Marc Warren 68 71 70, Hennie Otto 69 68 72, Callum Shinkwin 68 71 70, Austin Connelly 69 71 69, Jarin Todd 68 72 69

210 - Tyrone Ferreira 65 73 72, Alex Haindl 69 69 72, Andre Nel 71 68 71, Henric Sturehed 68 71 71, Shaun Norris 70 67 73, Daniel van Tonder 69 67 74, Neil Schietekat 72 67 71, Deon Germishuys 70 70 70, Laurie Canter 72 68 70

211 - Jaco Van Zyl 70 67 74, Michael Palmer 70 70 71, Jake Redman 68 72 71, Gregory Bourdy 70 70 71, Pedro Figueiredo 67 73 71

212 - Wilco Nienaber 69 69 74, Jacques Blaauw 70 69 73, CJ du Plessis 70 69 73, Anton Haig 68 69 75, Yurav Premlall 73 67 72

213 - Callum Mowat 71 67 75, Jack Harrison 68 71 74, Tom Murray 66 73 74, Keith Horne 71 68 74

214 - Alejandro Canizares 73 66 75, Alexander Knappe 73 66 75, John Catlin 70 70 74, Matthew Jordan 67 73 74

216 - Duane Keun 71 67 78, David Gleeson 75 65 76

218 - JJ Senekal 70 70 78

Return