CAPE TOWN – There were 10 golfers who shared the lead going into Saturday’s third round of the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open, and yet the leader by the end of the day didn’t come from any one of them. Instead it fell to Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg to overtake them all.
Lindberg teed off five shots behind the leaders on Saturday and signed for a 65 – including two eagles – at the Royal Cape Golf Club that earned him a one-stroke lead on 11 under par in this Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour co-sanctioned tournament.
His nearest challengers on 10 under par are South Africans Michael Hollick, Thomas Aiken, Louis Albertse and Ryan van Velzen; Frenchmen Robin Sciot-Siegrist and Martin Couvra; and Englishman Sam Hutsby.
“I played pretty good all day and obviously I’m pleased to shoot to seven under. I made some really nice momentum putts early in the round which helped,” said Lindberg.
A tight golf course and a stiff breeze combined to prevent any one player making too much of a move away from the field in the third round.
“I saw the wind was forecast to pick up around lunchtime so I felt like even though I was a few shots off the leaders at the start of the day, if I could post a good number today I felt like I could get myself in contention. When I started there wasn’t much wind. I was in a good place to take advantage of teeing off early,” he said.
But even the professionals have been surprised at just how tight this leaderboard has remained.
“Before today’s round there were 10 people sharing the lead, and after 15 holes today I saw that there were 17 players on nine under par. I’ve never really seen that before. It builds up for an interesting Sunday,” said Lindberg.
South Africa’s Albertse also said he was surprised to see so many players in contention going into Sunday’s final round.
“I’ve never experienced a tournament where 10 players have shared the lead. After the second round I was one shot off the lead and I was lying in tied 11th place. It’s very weird. I think this is a golf course where you can’t really run away from the field. It will be hard to see somebody build up a big lead here.” – Michael Vlismas
