11 November 2018: Sergio Garcia fired a 71 on day three of the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player to open up a two-shot lead as he looks for a wire-to-wire victory in the seventh Rolex Series event of the season. Despite getting off to a rocky start, Shubhankar Sharma dug his heels in to produce a fighting 71 in the third round.
Shubhankar made three bogeys on his first four holes from the tenth tee. He steadied his boat with three straight pars before knocking in his first birdie on the 17th hole.
The 22-year-old kept his head down after the turn, running a clean card through to the fifth hole. He rose like a phoenix there, carding a hattrick of birdies from the sixth to move under par for the day. At 4-over 220, Shubhankar is lying in T44 through 54 holes.
The Spaniard led by four after round one but fellow Major Champion Louis Oosthuizen cut that to one shot after 36 holes and the South African will be the nearest challenger heading into Sunday at Gary Player Country Club.
The 38-year-old will enter the final day at ten under as he looks to make it back-to-back wins after triumphing at the Andalucía Valderrama Masters hosted by his own foundation, with Oosthuizen carding a 72 to sit in second.
Garcia has nine wins from his previous 14 54-hole leads on the European Tour and would be the second wire-to-wire winner of the season after Eddie Pepperell at the Sky Sports British Masters.
“I thought it was pretty good. The course is playing tough. It’s playing difficult, but I felt like probably I didn’t get much out of my round. I felt like I was quite consistent.
“Maybe I could have been a little bit more aggressive hitting a couple shots here and there but I gave myself a good amount of chances. Unfortunately, the putts didn’t want to drop but at the end of the day, shooting under par, still in the lead, I’m happy with that.
“I’m just going to keep trying to do the same thing. I know the course is going to be playing tough again. I’m going to go out and try to shoot under par like I’ve done all three days. I think if I can manage to shoot somewhere in the 60s, maybe 70 might be enough.
A victory would be Garcia’s second wire-to-wire win in the last two seasons and his third triumph at Gary Player Country Club after winning this event in 2001 and 2003 before it joined the European Tour International Schedule.
Belgian Thomas Detry, Finn Mikko Korhonen and England’s Lee Westwood were then at seven under, a shot clear of another Englishman in Ross Fisher, who mounted a remarkable comeback with a 67 after dropping eight shots in his last four holes on Friday.
Local favourite Darren Fichardt carded a 67 to sit at four under, a shot clear of fellow South African Dean Burmester and French duo Benjamin Hebert and Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
In the quest to stay in the hunt for the Race to Dubai next week, Li Haotong and Lucas Bjerregaard both need a win but were ten and 14 shots back respectively, while Rory McIlroy – who needs a top-two finish – was at level par.
Scores
206 S Garcia (Esp) 64 71 71,
208 L Oosthuizen (RSA) 69 67 72,
209 T Detry (Bel) 75 66 68, L Westwood (Eng) 71 69 69, M Korhonen (Fin) 68 70 71,
210 R Fisher (Eng) 71 72 67,
212 D Fichardt (RSA) 74 67 71,
213 D Burmester (RSA) 72 71 70, B Hebert (Fra) 69 75 69, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 73 72,
214 S Lowry (Irl) 71 69 74, N Colsaerts (Bel) 75 69 70, M Wallace (Eng) 69 72 73,
215 B Grace (RSA) 70 71 74, A Johnston (Eng) 73 69 73, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 71 71 73, A Rai (Eng) 72 68 75, J Scrivener (Aus) 69 76 70, D Frittelli (RSA) 73 67 75,
216 A Pavan (Ita) 71 70 75, R Sterne (RSA) 77 69 70, M Kaymer (Ger) 76 69 71, R McIlroy (Nir) 72 71 73, A Wu (Chn) 69 73 74, C Schwartzel (RSA) 68 78 70, O Fisher (Eng) 75 70 71, H Li (Chn) 71 70 75,
217 C Paisley (Eng) 72 75 70, J Lagergren (Swe) 72 74 71, J Luiten (Ned) 72 75 70, A Sullivan (Eng) 69 74 74, A Otaegui (Esp) 74 72 71, R Fox (Nzl) 70 73 74,
218 T Immelman (RSA) 74 73 71, R Paratore (Ita) 72 71 75, P Larrazábal (Esp) 74 70 74,
219 R Rock (Eng) 75 73 71, W Ormsby (Aus) 73 74 72, J Dantorp (Swe) 77 73 69, J Guerrier (Fra) 74 68 77, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 77 69 73, S Horsfield (Eng) 73 72 74, M Schwab (Aut) 72 71 76,
220 S Sharma (Ind) 74 75 71, J Campillo (Esp) 71 78 71, P Harrington (Irl) 73 73 74, L Herbert (Aus) 76 69 75, P Waring (Eng) 72 76 72, G Coetzee (RSA) 73 79 68, L Bjerregaard (Den) 75 70 75, B Stone (RSA) 74 71 75, J Smith (Eng) 79 69 72
