South Africa’s interest in the FedExCup is hanging by a thread after a slow Saturday left both Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace outside the top 70, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
Heading into the Dell Technologies Championship, Louis Oosthuizen needed a top-35 finish and looked on track to bust that number and work his way towards the top 30 – the field size for the finale at East Lake.
A 67 on Saturday was backed up by a 72 which included a back nine that consisted entirely of pars to leave Oosthuizen four places to catch up with 18 holes to play.
A bogey at the 2nd was the result after he found the water with his second after going for the green in two and found himself two over through four after failing to navigate the drivable par four.
Birdies at the 7th and 9th – with putts combined to just six feet – sandwiched a bogey on the 8th after he came up well short on the par three. That stop-start up-and-down was followed up with nine pars including one at the last when Oosthuizen left himself 35 foot for birdie with a wedge in for his third.
Grace’s pre-tournament objectives were much stricter after a season that didn’t mirror his form on the European Tour. A top 15 was needed to book a place at the BMW Championship next week and after his third straight round in the 70s, it appears likely that the 2016 RBC Heritage champion will be heading back to European Tour duty.
Third round leaderboard (USA unless noted, par-71):
200 – Abraham Ancer (MEX) 66-69-65
201 – Bryson DeChambeau 70-68-63, Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 69-63-69
202 – Cameron Smith (AUS) 69-66-67, Justin Rose (ENG) 65-67-70
203 – Emilano Grillo (ARG) 72-67-64, Kyle Stanley 70-67-66,
204 – Rory McIlroy (NIRL) 71-67-66, Tony Finau 69-68-67, Jordan Spieth 69-67-68, Beau Hossler 67-69-68
205 – Bryce Garnett 70-70-65, Marc Leishman (AUS) 68-68-69, Rafa Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 68-68-69, Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 69-65-71
206 – Matt Kuchar 71-69-66, Peter Uihlien 69-71-66, Keith Mitchell 73-66-67, Tiger Woods 72-66-68, Brooks Koepka 69-69-68, CT Pan (TPE) 69-68-69. Adam Hadwin (CAN) 68-68-70, Kim Si-woo (KOR) 70-66-70, JB Holmes 69-67-70
Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
