Former champion Hennie Otto made a flying start to his third round on a morning of good scoring at the South African Open Championship hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni.
The 2011 winner eagled the long second and birdied the par three next to be three under for his round and advance to nine under for the week.
That took the 37 year old South African into a tie for fifth – three shots behind halfway leaders Marco Crespi and Charl Schwartzel, who were yet to tee off.
Earlier Louis Taylor had defied his amateur status to charge into contention, but the 22 year old’s day was threatening to become a round of two halves.
Having turned in a seven under par 29 – an incredible run of 2-3-3-3 from the sixth taking him to ten under for the tournament – Taylor set off for home with a bogey at the tenth and double bogey six at the 11th.
There was plenty of low scoring to kick off moving day at Glendower GC, with Korean Sihwan Kim carding a six under par 66 to reach eight under.
South African Merrick Bremner and Spain’s Jorge Campillo were both also six under for the day and eight under for the week with one to play, the latter having made an incredible start with five consecutive birdies from the first.
