She might be seven shots off the lead at Erinvale, but Nicole Garcia’s third round on Saturday took the Investec South African Women’s Open Championship by storm as she raced inside the top 10 with a superb eight-under-par 64.
At seven-under through 54 holes, she heads into the final round in a share of seventh. Up ahead, Belgium’s Man De Roey extended her lead with a six-under-par 66 taking her to 14-under. That was three clear of Ines Laklalech of Morocco, with Lisa Pettersen of Sweden in third on 10-under-par.
“I tried to stay patient all day,” the 32-year-old De Roey said. “I started quite strong and created chances for myself. I thought it was going to be more windy and to be honest I prefer the wind because I can shape the ball more. But I just picked my targets and lines and tried to commit to every shot.
Should she complete the job tomorrow, De Roey would add a second Ladies European Tour (LET) title to her name following her breakthrough win at the 2022 Aramco Team Series-Bangkok event.
“I’m really looking forward to the final round,” she continued. “I’ve been playing quite solid all year with a few top-10s. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing the last two days, make some putts and we’ll see what happens.”
Behind Garcia, the next-best South African was Casandra Alexander, who had a fine day herself with a six-under-par 66 lifting her into a share of 19th on two-under-par.
