As the leader faltered for the first time on Saturday, Jayden Schaper was able to look at the Nedbank Golf Challenge leaderboard and see a path to a possible victory at Gary Player Country Club.

Schaper was done and dusted with his six-under-par 66 lifting him to 12-under-par for the tournament, and Kristoffer Reitan of Norway hit his approach to the 18th left and into the bushes. While his provisional put him onto the green, his first ball was found in a bad enough spot for him to have to take a penalty drop for the unplayable lie.

In the end, he made a double-bogey six there, but he still heads into the final round with a five-stroke lead over Schaper. For the South African, the fact that the lead could have been seven or more will give him heart – and the feeling that momentum may be on his side as the course could end up exacting revenge for all the birdies that Reitan has extracted from it this week.

It’s a bit of a David and Goliath scenario that awaits Schaper, with his world ranking of 153 up against the 59th-ranked Reitan. But he will be buoyed by what will certainly be very vocal local support, as he has been all tournament long.

“There’s a lot of support out there from my family, friends and just a lot of other people. And I just had a good day overall. It’s always nice to go low in the third round, moving aay.

“You grow up watching this event and it’s so cool coming here. It’s always an event that I wanted to play and I could see myself playing in one day.

“It was a lot of hard work to get here. But to have the day I had out there, see my family, friends, and just, yeah, just such a cool experience.”

Reitan, who secured his maiden DP World Tour title at the Soudal Open in May this year, produced a brilliant burst of scoring around the turn to build an eight-shot lead before play was suspended for just over two hours in the late afternoon due to thunder and lightning in the area.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout was two shots behind Schaper in a share of third with England’s Dan Bradbury after his third round of one-under-par 71.

Garrick Higgo was on eight-under after his 71 put him in a share of fifth, while Shaun Norris and Daniel van Tonder were in a share of 10th on seven-under-par.