Wilco Nienaber’s yo-yo tournament continued on Saturday, and this time his superb eight-under-par 64 took him into a share of second after the third round of the Challenge Tour’s Challenge de Cadiz at Iberostar Real Golf Novo Sancti Petri in Cadiz, Andalucía, Spain.
Nienaber opened the tournament with a three-under 69, and inexplicably followed it with a three-over 75. That put him seven strokes off the halfway lead. And, despite an early birdie on the second in the third round, a bogey on the third seemed as if it might herald another round with an identity crisis.
But he followed that with a pair of eagle-twos on the fourth and the sixth ignited the kind of scoring a player of his abilities can produce. He birdied the eighth, and then picked up three more shots on the homeward nine. And suddenly, he was at eight-under with the final round to come.
He was four strokes off the lead, which was held by Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen of Denmark after his six-under-par 66 took him to 12-under. Nienaber shared second with three other players, Angel Ayora of Spain, Ireland’s Gary Hurley and the Dane with an unlikely Danish name, Hamish Brown.
Deon Germishuys was a shot back in a share of sixth place on seven-under-par through 54 holes after his third round of four-under-par 68.
Robin Williams also had a four-under 68 in the third round, and he moved in to a share of 34th on four-under. On three-under was Oliver Bekker, who slipped to a three-over 75 in the third round and he was in a share of 40th.
Justin Walters was on two-under in a share of 47th, and Dylan Mostert was in a share of 60th on one-over. Albert Venter brought up the rear for the South Africans still in the field, and he was on four-over after an eight-over 80 in the third round.
