Branden Grace knew there would always be chances for bogeys on Saturday, but he put his mistakes behind him and held on to a share of the lead after the third round of the Volvo Golf Champions at the Fancourt Links on Saturday.

On a day when only 10 of the 35-man field were under-par and there were two quadruple-bogeys and five triple-bogeys, Grace’s two-over-par 75 was actually a solid round and it left him on 10-under overall, tied with Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts for the lead.

Grace started badly with two bogeys on the first three holes and he also made two double-bogeys on the back nine, on the par-four 12th and par-three 17th holes. But he also picked up four birdies and he was satisfied with his efforts on a rainy, blustery day in the Southern Cape.

“I always knew there’d be mistakes on the card, but I still played really well because the conditions were really tough. I handled it well and made some good saves to limit the damage,” Grace said after his round.

“I actually thought it was very good golf on the first five holes, I just missed one shot, when I mis-hit an eight-iron. Otherwise, I striped my drive on the first and unluckily it bounced into the pot bunker.

“The same again on 12, it was a great drive but it just had a big bounce right on one of the slopes and it ended up in a pot bunker. It makes the hole very long because you can’t really hit the ball a long way then, you have to go sideways and it leaves you with a very long club in.

“On 17, I just went for it a little bit more than I should have, I hit it a bit too hard and I was over the back of the green, which you don’t want to play with,” Grace explained.

But the 23-year-old didn’t allow the mishap to get him down and he promptly birdied the last hole to ensure he will go into the final round with a fabulous chance of pulling off back-to-back victories after his breakthrough triumph in last weekend’s Joburg Open.

“I’m still happy, I’m still in there. I’ll take two-over today and I’ll just stick to my own game tomorrow,” Grace said.

One should never underestimate the nastiness of the Fancourt Links and, after two rounds of low scoring, the course bit back on Saturday with Charl Schwartzel’s 68 the best round of the day and one of only 10 that were under-par.

Schwartzel’s outstanding round was enough to get the South African within a shot of the lead and the Masters champion achieved it despite having to get treatment for a sore elbow moments before he teed off.

“I only hit about 10 balls on the range because my elbow was giving me quite a few problems. The physio, Karen, gave me a quick stretch and hurt me a bit, but it was just a tight nerve and I never felt it on the course,” Schwartzel said after his round.

“But today was a lot tougher out there and to shoot five-under was very satisfying. I hit the ball the best I have in a long time, it was just flawless shot after flawless shot.”

Considering the carnage going on all around him, it was a top-class effort by Schwartzel to only make one bogey in his round, on the par-three 11th. In fact, the Masters champion could have posted a still better score were it not for a balky putter.

“All my birdies were basically tap-ins. The ball just wouldn’t go in the hole otherwise. It feels like I’m hitting good putts, I’m not starting them on-line and when I do, I’m just reading them wrong,” Schwartzel complained.

A blustery, gusting wind combined with steady showers to make Fancourt a treacherous place on Saturday.

“The wind and misty rain made it difficult. I was hitting four-irons into the wind where normally I’d be hitting a seven-iron. That’s how short the ball is going, the fairways are also a lot softer, and it’s very difficult hitting long-irons into these greens. You need to be wide awake and commit to whatever shot you’re playing because the margins are not big out there,” Schwartzel said.

Ironically, the one time the 27-year-old did take a chance, it paid off with an eagle-three at the ninth hole.

“I was actually considering laying up short of the ditch because there was a chunk of mud on the left side of the ball. The rule of thumb is that the ball will normally fly the opposite side of the mud and the wind was also off the left. But I was hitting the ball off a steep right-to-left slope, which tends to cause a pull, so I thought it would counter-balance the mud and wind. I had 264 yards and I hit a two-iron to six inches!” Schwartzel said with only a touch of exaggeration.

Schwartzel once again expressed his belief that the local golfers were favoured to win the title because of their course knowledge.

“You can’t come here and play one practice round and think you’re going to conquer the course. You need to know it really well because a lot of the slopes you can use to your benefit, but a lot of them can bite you,” he said.

Retief Goosen on Friday criticised the set-up of the Fancourt Links after finishing the second round six shots off the pace in the Volvo Golf Champions.

The two-time SA Open champion – he won the last of his crowns here at Fancourt in 2005 – is unhappy at the amount of moisture on the course.

“The course is extremely soft and I’m quite surprised. I had two tee shots today that came back on the fairway and yesterday I had another that had mud on it. You’re playing a links out there and it’s playing like a parkland, so it’s quite disappointing the way they are setting it up.

“There’s no wind and the course is drenched – that’s why there’s so much low scoring out there,” Goosen said.

The 42-year-old nevertheless tackled the conditions with aplomb, getting straight down to business with birdies at the first two holes, and Goosen said a good start and consistent ball-striking had led him to his five-under-par 68 on Friday.

Goosen parred the next five holes, before claiming another pair of birdies at the eighth and ninth holes. Further birdies on the 11th and 13th holes lifted the two-time US Open champion to six-under for the round and in touch with the leaders, but the course bit back as he bogeyed the par-four 14th and 15th holes. But Goosen regained one of the strokes with a birdie on the par-five 16th.

Playing partner Lee Slattery would have an even better day as he put together a brilliant eight-under-par 65 that lifted him into a tie for second with South African Thomas Aiken.

“You have to be a bit more aggressive on this course, you just have to take on a few more shots,” Slattery said. “It was just one of them rounds I’m going to remember for the rest of my life and hopefully it can kickstart something for me. I think it’s probably the best round of my career, with it being such a big event, with so many great players and playing with Retief.”

Goosen, Slattery and English amateur Mark Vandenburghe combined brilliantly to win the Volvo World Golf Challenge.

The top 18 finishers in the World Golf Final qualified to play with the professionals on Friday and the 50-year-old Vandenberghe, Goosen and Slattery finished on a combined 18-under-par total of 128, to beat Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, England’s Simon Dyson and Austrian amateur Henning Frech by three shots.

The three-ball’s prize was a brand new Volvo for each golfer, which brightened Goosen’s mood considerably.

“How great is this? I didn’t even have to make a hole-in-one,” Goosen said.