A triple-bogey eight on the closing hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Saturday cost Christiaan Bezuidenhout a better position after the third round of the PGA Tour’s Signature Event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California.
Bezuidenhout reached the 18th at four-under-par for the day, and that was after consecutive bogeys on 16 and 17 had already undone a lot of the good work he had achieved with six birdies up until then.
On 18, he hit his tee shot out of bounds right, laid up after three off the tee, and then three-putted after hitting his approach inside 25 feet.
That all came after he didn’t get up and down from a greenside bunker on the par-three 16th, and was sloppy around the green on the par-four 17th to drop two shots in what was shaping up to be a very good round.
In the end, he reached seven-under-par for the tournament through 54 holes, with Austria’s Sepp Straka holding on to a one-stroke lead at 16-under-par in the face of a twin-Irish challenge from Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy. That dangerous pair had matching rounds of seven-under-par 65 to charge into contention and set up a thrilling final round.
Erik van Rooyen rebounded from his poor second round of five-over 77 with a four-under 68 to climb to a share of 52nd in the no-cut 80-man field.
