Ireland’s Padraig Harrington turned in a blinding 11 under par round of 61 to climb to third after today’s play at the Sun City Golf championship in South Africa.
Harrington, who shot a 62 in Wednesday’s pro-am event, is four shots off leader Ernie Els.
Harrington started today’s round at the wrong end of the leaderboard - on two under par - but soon found his range with remarkable iron play and clinical putting.
Six sparkling birdies on the front nine were swiftly followed with another six en route to the clubhouse. A bogey four at the 12th would prove the only blot on Harrington’s card.
Darren Clarke, however, has struggled to find his form recently and has made little impression on this event. A disappointing two over par round of 74 today sees the Tyroneman struggling at the foot of the leaderboard on one over par.
Home favourite Ernie Els is vying to win the Sun City title for an unprecedented third successive year and holds a three stroke lead over German Bernhard Langer going into tomorrow’s final round.
Meanwhile, Jim Furyk was disqualified from the tournament for an incident which occurred during Thursday’s first round. He was found to be in breach of the local rule of preferred lies.
199- Ernie Els (Rsa) 67-66-66
202- Bernhard Langer (Ger) 68-67-67
203- Padraig Harrington (Ire) 70-72-61
204- Mike Weir (Can) 68-67-69, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69-65-70
205- Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 71 66
209- Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 68-69-72, Nick Price (Zim) 68-71-70
210- Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68-68-74
211- Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71-72-68
217- Darren Clarke (Ire) 75-68-74
DQ- Jim Furyk (USA)