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Mbabane – Divan van den Heever hunts when there is no golf tournament to play, and he has Christiaan Basson in his sights after the third round on Friday of the Investec Royal Swazi Open.
He bagged himself 15 points in the tournament which is played on a modified stableford system, with eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie and none for par. One point is deducted for every bogey and two for double or worse.
He bagged himself a pair of eagles, and that’s the ticket to success in the tournament, but the rest of the day was a bit of a struggle for him – as it was for Basson who mixed six birdies and four bogeys on his scorecard for a two-under-par 70.
Justin Walters, the halfway leader, had an even tougher time of it – but at least he didn’t have a dropped shot on his card after he birdied the fourth. But he didn’t pick up another point through the rest of his round.
“In this format, an eagle can give you a good jump,” said Van den Heever. Two meant he carded a six-under-par 66 to Basson’s 70 and Walters’ 71.
Basson leads with 36 points, with Walters on 34 and Van den Heever has 32 going into the final round.
Alex Haindl fired the day’s best score of 17 – a purple patch of five successive birdies on his closing nine after he started his round on the 10th propelling him to an eight-under 64. He made four other birdies and a single bogey.
That lifted him to 31 points for the tournament and sole possession of fourth place.
Basson was eventually relieved to sign for his eight points: “I started with a bogey on the first,” he said, “and although I hit a good shot for a birdie on the third, it was an up-and-down battle for the rest.”
Walters held a four-point lead overnight. “The idea was to try and put daylight between myself and the field,” he said. “But I must have left about eight points out there, so I suppose I’m a little disappointed.
“But I didn’t hit a wedge close all day, and at least I’m in a position to get things going again tomorrow,” he added.
“I’m pleased to be in the last group tomorrow, because I can keep an eye on the others,” said Van den Heever.” And if they start getting away, it gives you a chance to go for a pin and do something about it immediately.”
Scores (RSA unless specified):
36 - Christiaan Basson 19 9 8
34 - Justin Walters 17 15 2
32 - Divan van den Heever 11 6 15
31 - Alex Haindl 12 2 17
30 - Mark Williams 13 13 4
29 - Desvonde Botes 8 13 8
27 - Brandon Pieters 12 5 10, Mark Murless 10 6 11
26 - Trevor Fisher Jnr 10 7 9, Jake Roos 7 13 6
25 - Neil Schietekat 11 13 1
24 - David Hewan 3 10 11, Louis de Jager 7 8 9
23 - Alan Michell 4 12 7, Albert Pistorius 13 6 4, Ryan Tipping 7 6 10
22 - Andre Cruse 6 7 9, JG Claassen 10 4 8
21 - Grant Muller 5 4 12, PH McIntyre 7 6 8, Doug McGuigan 12 3 6
20 - Tyrone Mordt 11 1 8
19 - Dean O'Riley 6 4 9, Oliver Bekker 12 1 6, Josh Cunliffe 2 11 6, Warren Abery 9 6 4
18 - Ulrich van den Berg 0 9 9, Bradford Vaughan 1 7 10, Daniel Greene 4 6 8, Merrick Bremner 4 7 7
17 - Jacques Blaauw -2 8 11, Adilson da Silva (BRA) 4 6 7, Steven Ferreira 5 5 7, Brett Liddle 10 2 5, Jeff Inglis (ENG) 9 3 5
16 - Johan du Buisson 7 1 8, Dion Fourie 3 3 10, Grant Veenstra 3 7 6, Divan Gerber 12 2 2
15 - Prinavin Nelson 0 10 5, PG van Zyl 6 5 4
14 - Jaco Ahlers 6 7 1
12 - Nic Henning 7 5 0, Willie van der Merwe 8 6 -2
11 - Peter Karmis -2 8 5, Allan Versfeld 7 1 3, Derik Ferreira 0 9 2
10 - Neil Cheetham (ENG) -1 7 4, Colin Nel 4 5 1, Jean Hugo 0 8 2
9 - Wynand Dingle 2 4 3, Chris Swanepoel -1 8 2
7 - Omar Sandys 0 7 0, James Kamte 3 5 -1
5 - Justin Harding 4 2 -1
