SA make up ground in Argentina
South Africa’s Gerlou Roux and Callum Mowat produced a strong comeback in Saturday’s third round of the 42ndJuan Carlos Tailhade Cup in Argentina to surge within striking distance of pacesetters Spain.
Western Province’s Roux took advantage of the benign conditions at the Los Lagartos Country Club near Pilar on Saturday to fire a three-under-par 68 and a 72 from Central Gauteng’s Mowat help nudge South Africa to joint third on 441 with Ireland.
A pair of 71s from Spain’s Mario Aguilar and his partner David Ayra kept the overnight leaders ahead on 432, while Australians Jarryd Felton and Anthony Murdaca strengthened the country’s title defence bid with respective rounds of 65 and 73 to vault into second.
The Australians are eight shots adrift and the South Africans are just nine shots off the pace, but the host nation lost some footing and slipped to sixth on 443.
“After all the wind and rain over the first two rounds, we really appreciated the warm and windless conditions on Saturday,” said Roux. “We are still struggling with the pace on the greens, because they just keep speeding up, but we are really proud that we rallied and put ourselves back in the battle.
“It won’t be easy to beat Spain and the Australians are also starting to fire, but we will definitely give it our best effort on Sunday.”
THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD
432 Spain 148-142-142
440 Australia 152-150-138
441 South Africa 146-155-140; Ireland 152-149-140
442 Denmark 143-149-150
443 Argentina 148-146-149
451 New Zealand 155-152-144
451Portugal 150-156-145
453 Italy 149-157-147
456 Canada 157-154-145
459 Brazil 159-157-143
462 Peru 155-158-149
464 Finlandia 154-158-152
465 Uruguay 148-161-156
468 Venezuela 156-163-149
493 Colombia 162-175-156