Charl Schwartzel leads by three strokes heading into the final round of the 54-hole LIV Golf Invitational London at Centurion Golf Club.
The South African’s four-man team, Stinger GC, leads the team competition by seven shots.
It’s been a productive first two rounds, but there are 18 holes left and nothing is set in stone.
“We’ve been around this game a long time,” Schwartzel said. “There’s a lot of things that can happen.”
Schwartzel’s four under 66 on Friday moved him to nine under for the tournament. That gives him a three-stroke lead over Hennie du Plessis, his teammate on the all-South African Stinger team.
The next two closest pursuers are Peter Uihlein, captain of Crushers GC, who matched Schwartzel’s 66 to move to four under, and Oliver Bekker, a member of the 4 Aces GC, who shot a 67 and is now at three under.
On the team leaderboard, Stinger GC has a seven-shot lead over Crushers GC, with the all-England Majesticks another two strokes back.
Uihlein knows it will be difficult to catch Schwartzel in the individual competition and Stinger in the team competition. But with the top- three scores counting for each team in the final round, hot rounds by multiple players could produce a huge move.
“There’s three scores, so anything can happen,” Uihlein said. “It’ll still be tough to mount a comeback, but it’ll be fun.
“We have no idea what will happen tomorrow because it’s the first time we’re doing it, so it should be cool.”
Louis Oosthuizen, the captain of Stinger GC, has yet to contribute one of the counting scores for his team, since Schwartzel and Du Plessis have been playing so well.
“I’m the one at the moment who’s not really playing great,” Oosthuizen said. “But, yeah, it’s nice to see the boys playing well.”
Schwartzel is just hoping to see more of the same from the Stingers. Winning the team competition will mean a $3-million prize split among the four team members. First prize in the individual strokeplay competition is $4m. So, if Schwartzel and Stringer GC both win, his payday would be $4.75m.
“Solid golf will take care of that,” Schwartzel said.
– Report from LIV Golf website
Photo: Aitor Alcalde/LIV Golf/Getty Images
