Dean Burmester joined Caleb Surratt in the lead in the PIF Saudi International when he carded a seven-under-par 64 on Friday in the third round at Riyadh Golf Club in Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
Surratt of the United states shot a three-under-par 68 to finish on 17-under in a tie with Burmester, giving himself a great opportunity to make up for losing here in a play-off last year.
Josele Ballester from Spain was in third place, one stroke behind, after a 66. Englishman Richard Bland (64), Adrian Meronk (68) from Poland, and American Anthony Kim (69) were next best placed, three back.
The $5-million event is the most lucrative of the season on the Asian Tour and the final event of the year on The International Series.
Burmester shot 63 in the second round and impressively nearly matched that in the third round. He was bogey-free and carded seven birdies, including on the last two.
He is one the biggest hitters on the tour and reached the par-four 18th, which measures 396 yards, from the tee.
He said: “Yeah, I hit one yesterday. That’s kind of how I knew I could get there and make sure I was comfortable being able to roll into that left pin. You kind of want to keep it up to the middle of the green. I went from there and hit it pretty hard, probably as hard as I’ve ever hit a tee shot.”
He finished second in a long driving competition in South Africa a week ago and the experience has stood him in a good stead this week.
“I learned a few things from the long drive champion in South Africa,” he explained.
“So, it was quite cool to kind of put that to good use. It’s more about like hip mobility and rotation and how he creates his speed without feeling like you have to hit it that hard. It was quite interesting to see the dynamic and the way that they do it. I’m sure Bryson DeChambeau knows all about this stuff because he did it. For me to learn something like that was cool.”
Like Surrat, Burmester competes on the LIV Golf League. He plays for Stingers GC, the South African side, and won LIV Golf Chicago in August for his second win on the franchise.
The International Series Rankings will be decided in the final round, with the leading two players securing places on next year’s LIV Golf League.
Rankings leader Scott Vincent from Zimbabwe put himself in a strong position to finish the year on top after returning his third 67.
He was in a tie for seventh, five shots behind the leaders.
Jaco Ahlers had a two-under 69 to be in a share of 21st, whole Branden Grace was also on nine-under in a share of 21st. Louis Oosthuizen had a level-par 71 in the third round and was in a share of 30th on seven-under.
