Luca Filippi battled swirling winds on the back nine on Saturday as he carded a two-over-par 74 in the third round of the Sunshine Tour’s FBC Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare Golf Club to barely hold on to the lead he took at the halfway stage.
It started well for the man who was on 11-under after 36 holes, a she made three consecutive birdies from the fourth to the sixth. But, as the wind became more difficult, things started to be tougher for him. He dropped a shot on the eighth to tun in two-under.
Unfortunately, that was just the start. He made double-bogey on the par-four 10th, and another on the 18th. In between, there were two more bogeys, and two birdies kept the homeward nine score to four-over 40. It could have been worse.
“It felt like a very long day and it was tough going out in the afternoon in the swirling wind,” said Filippi. “So three-under through six holes was a great start.
“But then the double on 10 set me back, and I unfortunately had two bad holes to end too. But I thought I hung in nicely on the back nine. It was a nice start in conditions that were not easy and I thought I was building a nice lead, but golf thought otherwise and instead I just have a one-shot lead,” Filippi added
He will go into the final round with Wynand Dingle on eight-under snapping at his heels after he carded a four-under par 68. Jaco Ahlers and Louis de Jager were another two shots back on six-under in a share of third after rounds of one-under and level-par respectively.
In an indication of how tough things were, only 11 of the 66 players who made the cut were able to break par in the third round, with five of those players unable to break 80. Dingle’s was the best round of the day, one better than the 69 which rookie left-hander Ricky Hendler made to move into 14th place on one-under for the tournament.
