Christiaan Bezuidenhout overcame a tough opening nine on Saturday to card a five-under-par 66 in the third round of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas and climb into a share of 26th.
Bezuidenhout started his round on the 10th, and he made a bogey on the 11th to get his round off to a shaky start. He birdied the 13th, but dropped again on the 14th. After that, however, things started going well for the top-ranked South African, and two birdies on 17 and 18 ahead of the turn saw him turn at one-under. He made four birdies without dropping a shot on his homeward nine as he climbed 22 places on the leaderboard.
He heads into the final round at 10-under-par for the tournament, six shots off the lead which was shared by Americans Austin Eckroat and Ryan Palmer, and Zecheng Dou of China. At 16-under, that trio leads by two from four players, including world number two Scottie Scheffler and former world number one, Jason Day of Australia. Bezuidenhout shared 26th with six other players.
Garrick Higgo carded a third-round total of three-under-par 68 to move to eight-under for the tournament and a share of 49th.
