Schwartzel En Route to another Runaway


Charl Schwartzel went from being tied for the top spot in the Alfred Dunhill Championship through 36 holes to a 10-stroke lead thanks to his second straight 8-under 64. The 2011 Masters' championship stands at 21-under 195, well ahead of France's Gregory Bourdy, who began Saturday even with Schwartzel.

After carding six birdies and an eagle Friday at Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa, the 28-year-old Johannesburg native tacked on 10 birdies and a pair of bogeys to be set up for a second straight runaway victory. Last week he won the Thailand Open by 11 shots.

Despite going 16-under the past two days, Schwartzel said after the third round that he's not quite ready to dust off more space in his trophy case. "As a golfer you don't like to think like that," he said. "It's a nice comfort and I'd rather be 10 ahead than nine ahead. Whatever lead you can build is great. We've all see what can happen in this game. I don't want to think about it."

After Bourdy, who posted a 2-over 74 in the third round to reach 205, there are Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg (67), South Africa's Branden Grace (67) and England's Steve Webster (70) sharing third at 10-under 206.

About the only element of his game that concerns Schwartzel is his work off the tee. "I don't think I'm hitting my driver very well but I'm hitting my 3-wood well. I seem to go for that and I'm hitting it really long, so it's working out for me. Once I get into position then my iron play is good.

"Probably the biggest thing of all is that I'm converting the putts. You don't need your 'A game' to score well. There's a big difference between flushing the golf ball and scoring. I'm not flushing it, but I'm scoring well.

"When you flush it you feel a lot less pressure," he added. "When you're not hitting it well it doesn't mean that you're going to score worse, you've just got to work so much harder to get the ball down in play."

The shot of the day was again made by South Africa's Keith Horne who, for the second straight round, aced the 192-yard, par-3 12th hole. Those heroics took Horne, who's posted rounds of 70, 69 and 68, into solo sixth at 9-under 207.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2012096/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y.