Garrick Higgo played himself into position to challenge for the title on Saturday as he carded a four-under-par 67 in the third round of the European Tour’s Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open at the Aphrodite Hills Resort in Paphos, Cyprus.
The South African lefty made six birdies and two bogeys to reach 12-under-par at the 54-hole mark of the tournament, and he will start the final round just two shots off the lead which is held by Welshman Jamie Donaldson.
The young man who plays out of De Zalze in Stellenbosch will be in pursuit of his second European Tour title in just his 11th start on the circuit. A win will also almost certainly catapult him into the world’s top 100 from his current ranking of 117.
He made two birdies and a bogey in his opening nine, but came to light on the homeward stretch with four birdies and another bogey. While his work off the tee was perhaps not as accurate as he would have liked, hitting just 38.4 percent of fairways, he has managed to recover well and reached 15 of 18 greens in regulation and taking just 1.6 putts every time, he hit those greens.
Louis de Jager signed for a one-under 70 in the third round, setting himself up in a share of 30th for the tournament, together with, among others, Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe. They were on seven-under, six shots off the pace.
Haydn Porteous shot a three over 74 to slip down to a share of 63rd, while Wilco Nienaber had a poor 79 to slip to the bottom of the leaderboard at one-over for the tournament in 69th spot.
Donaldson entered round three in a share of the lead after returning to complete his second round early on Saturday morning and held the solo lead at the end of the day. But the top 15 were separated by just three shots and a mouth-watering final day was in prospect.
