Christiaan Bezuidenhout clicked into top gear on Saturday with a superlative 10-under-par 62 in the third round of the PGA Tour’s vaulting him into a share of third after the third round of the PGA Tour’s American Express in La Quinta, California.
The tournament is played on three courses, the La Quinta Country Club and the Stadium Course and the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West. Bezuidenhout started on the 10th on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, and he got things going with three consecutive birdies. He repeated that dose with three in a row again, from the 15th to the 17th, and he turned in six-under 30. He made four more gains on his way in, on the fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth.
At 19-under for the tournament, he was four shots off the lead which was shared by Jon Rahm, the best golfer on the planet right now by some distance, and American rookie Davis Thompson. They played their third rounds on the Stadium Course, where the final round will be played after the cut was made after 54 holes. Bezuidenhout shared third with JT Poston of the United States.
South Africans Garrick Higgo and Erik van Rooyen also played on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, and were in a share of 27th on 13-under. Van Rooyen had a 66 and Higgo a 68. Dean Burmester posted a five-under 67 on La Quinta, and he was also in a share of 27th after that.
The cut fell at 10-under, and MJ Daffue and Dylan Frittelli missed out. Daffue had a third-round 71 to reach 54 holes in six-under, and Frittelli had a two-under 70 to move to one-over for the tournament.
