Julien Guerrier started the day four shots off the lead and emerged from a difficult round battling strong winds with a 4-under 68 after firing eight birdies and four birdies. He leads the Nedbank Golf Challenge by one shot at 5-under.
“First of all, it’s a privilege to score under par in tough conditions like that. I am very pleased I made a lot of birdies,” said the Frenchman.
“It was difficult to stay patient, you know you are going to make some mistakes, everybody does. This is difficult because you can hit some really good shots, like me on 17 but then you go into the water, just the wrong gust at the wrong moment, but that is part of this golf course.
“The fairways are actually wet so if you play straight down in the middle it is a little bit longer, and if you go on the side, it is a bit shorter, and on the green it is a bit firmer. We saw that on 18, it is really long and the second shot is tough.”
Fellow Frenchman Romain Langasque made five birdies, including three in a row from the 14th, a bogey and a double bogey at the par-4 8th for a 70 and a share of second place at 4-under alongside South African Ockie Strydom who made three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey at the par-4 13th for a 73.
Defending champion and overnight leader Max Homa of the United States held on to the lead for much of the day with three birdies and two bogeys but back-to-back double bogeys at the par-3 16th and par-4 17th saw him move down the leaderboard into a share of fourth place at 3-under.
Sharing fourth place are England’s Andy Sullivan and Matthew Jordan who both shot 72s as well as American Johannes Veerman who closed with a 71.
