Strydom reclaims top spot at Royal Cape

Jean-Paul Strydom returned to the summit of the leaderboard in round three of the RAM Cape Town Open after he signed for three-under 69 to total 13-under-par and take a slender one-stroke lead into the final round at Royal Cape.

On a day when the wind picked up quite early on, it was always going to be a laborious effort to shoot a low score at the wind-ravaged Royal Cape.

The struggle was obvious from the first glance as Strydom’s only birdies of the front nine – on the second and fifth holes – were quickly undone by the same number of bogeys on the third and ninth holes.

He seemed to have found something on the homeward stretch as he went birdie-eagle-par from the 10th through to the 12th hole, before picking up another birdie on 13. Back-to-back bogeys, thereafter, threatened to derail his round but he bounced back solidly, making further gains on the 16th before closing his round with pars on the 17th and the last holes.

“It wasn’t easy out there,” Strydom noted, “I mean, the wind; we knew it was going to blow today and probably tomorrow as well. But the game plan is to just keep it in play, hit the greens and hopefully, make a couple of putts.

“It’s a tough downwind, tough to try and stop the ball on the greens and stuff like that, but it was good. But it’s unbelievable to be leading with one round to go. I just hope I can finish the job because I have been in this situation before so I hope to take that experience to tomorrow.”

Zander Lombard lurks dangerously behind him, though, with just a single stroke separating the two players. Lombard also carded a 69 while overnight leader, Peter Karmis, Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya and Thriston Lawrence share the third spot on 10-under-par for the tournament.

Michael Palmer and Andrew Curlewis occupy the sixth spot on a total of nine-under with England’s Ross McGowan, 2017 champion Jacques Kruyswijk, Lyle Rowe, Daniel van Tonder, Justin Walters and Richard Bland share the eighth spot.

If the weather persists tomorrow, we are guaranteed an exciting finish to this, the seventh edition of the RAM Cape Town Open at Royal Cape.