MALELANE, November 19, 2011 (AFP) - South Africa's Garth Mulroy made five birdies in a row on his homeward nine on Saturday, giving him a third round lead in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.
He carded an eight-under-par 64 to move into a two-stroke lead over Felipe Aguilar, the Chilean who signed for a 68 after his second-round 64.
"I was a bit disappointed to miss out on a birdie on 18," said Mulroy after he picked up shots on each of the holes from the 13th to the 17th," he said.
He added that the best way to fix that would be to go out and get a birdie on his first hole on Sunday.
Mulroy started his round fast with a pair of birdies on the first two holes, and picked up a third on the sixth hole.
"I had a look at the leaderboard after the 11th hole," he said, "and I saw Merrick (Bremner) was at 12-under and I said to my caddie that it would be nice to start making a few and give the guy something to watch out for".
"And then on 13 I got unlucky yesterday, and I got lucky today," he said.
His impressive round was in stark contrast to the woes of halfway leader Jbe Kruger, who battled his way to a one-over-par 73 in a round which differed markedly from his opening 36 holes.
"I just couldn't hit it straight all day. I had no rhythm at all," he said. Kruger spent half his day in fairway bunkers, or scrambling around the greens, and then his putting deserted him too.
"I couldn't make anything, and when you can't do that it's very difficult," he said.
Kruger was in joint third position with Scotland's Peter Whiteford who carded a 64 to match Mulroy, South Africa's Hennie Otto, and Whiteford's countryman George Murray.
Bremner pulled his tee shot on the 18th way left, hit his approach into the water, and ended up making a good double bogey seven for a round of 69 and sole possession of seventh ahead of the final round.
The pursuit of Mulroy will be a tough one, as he is determined to end a year that has been inconsistent with a victory.
Leading scores after the third round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Saturday at par-72, 6631-metre Leopard Creek Country Club (RSA unless noted):
201 - Garth Mulroy 69-68-64
203 - Felipe Aguilar (CHL) 71-64-68
204 - Peter Whiteford (SCO) 73-67-64, Hennie Otto 69-68-67
George Murray (SCO) 66 69 69, Jbe Kruger 64 67 73
205 - Merrick Bremner 68-68-69
206 - Andrea Pavan (ITA) 68-70-68, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (FRA) 66-71-69, George Coetzee 66-71-69
207 - Vaughn Groenewald 76-65-66
208 - Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 70-71-67, Darren Fichardt 71-70-67,
Linus Gillgren (SWE) 69-71-68, Christiaan Basson 70-70-68, Mikko
Korhonen (FIN) 68-70-70, Jaco Van Zyl 68-68-72, Seve Benson (ENG)
64-71-73
Note: Dunhill Championship co-sanctioned by European Tour and South African Sunshine Tour