The Stingers are on a roll at the end of 2023. The LIV Golf team scored victories in the first three tournaments of the DP World Tour season played on South African soil. Dean Burmester lifted the cup at the Joburg Open and immediately after at the South African Open. Louis Oosthuizen (-14), the captain of the Stingers, wants to emulate his partner and, after being crowned on Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, has set his sights on the AfrAsia Bank Open in Mauritius.
Louis had gone five years without a win on the European Tour and in one fell swoop, in just a week, he could taste a couple of them. It’s no surprise that he’s doing so well at the Heritage La Reserve, the beautiful course littered with mines where this event is held, as he was one of the co-designers of the course and that’s always a plus. On the moving day, the South African, who is in his twenty-second season as a professional, became an eagle of LIV.
A true raptor capable of bagging three eagles, each one different, whether with a chip from outside the green and with a bunker in between or with a long putt and a steep drop on the 15th. Impressive. At those moments the veteran South African was flying high over Mauritius with eight under par, but perhaps he rushed on the 17th and needed a silly three-putt that cost him the bogey and then on the 18th he couldn’t get the birdie to extend the margin over his compatriot Jacques de Villiers (-13), second on the podium with Laurie Canter (-11) on the third step.
The Englishman precisely signed the best card of the day along with Oosthuizen’s. If the latter enjoyed a perfect Sunday a week ago, Canter wasted a double opportunity at the LIV promotion tournament in Abu Dhabi to secure one of the three places on offer to compete next season in the rebel league. Tomorrow he can make amends and snatch the victory from Oosthuizen, although if he keeps his aim it will be very difficult to dislodge him from the lead. Canter is the only non-South African among the top seven. The southern hemisphere is currently off limits to them. Prinsloo and Schaper share fourth place with -10 and Rowe and Moolman the sixth with -9. Watch out for the start of the season for veteran Fichardt (-8), eighth for now and who along with Schaper and Paratore (-4) are the only ones who can snatch the victory in this first Tour of the year from Min Woo Lee.
The Armada was stranded in the Indian Ocean on this third day. Although four of our five representatives had passed the cut, none will aspire to victory tomorrow. Ángel Hidalgo (-4) and Santi Tarrio (-4) are the best placed in 28th place. The Malaga native took advantage of a great Saturday to climb 25 places thanks to his five birdies and two bogeys; the Galician recovered from a bad start (three blots in nine holes) with three joys on the 10th, 12th and 18th to finish the day at par. Young Ángel Ayora (-3) had a projection after 10 flags (one bogey and three birdies), but then he lost his chain and added a trio of mistakes. Alfredo García Heredia (+1) was penalised with two double bogeys, although he managed to get birdies on the three par fives of the second part of the course and at least only finished two over par the round.
Speaking of the traps of the course, in yesterday’s report we pointed out the very high number of double bogeys or worse that had been added in 36 holes (219) and that only 35 more were needed over the weekend to equal the total record achieved on the Mont Choisy Le Golf course in this same tournament last year. Well, just this Saturday there were 39 double bogeys or worse… At any moment the Heritage La Reserve shows its claws.
