Ken Borland

Early leader Jake Roos was relegated to second by fellow South African Grace’s brilliance, his superb 65 leaving him, astonishingly, three shots off the pace.

Two Englishmen, Matt Ford, like Roos celebrating his newly-acquired European Tour card, and Danny Willett, the winner of last weekend’s Nedbank Golf Challenge, were a further stroke back on six-under-par 66, while Spain’s Nacho Elvira and South Africans Michael Hollick and Tjaart van der Walt were on five-under.

Grace started well with a birdie on the par-four first hole and reached the turn in 31 after three more birdies on the third, sixth and seventh holes, before putting his foot down on the tougher back nine and collecting six more birdies.

Grace’s last triumph came in the 2012 Alfred Dunhill Links at St Andrew’s and his world ranking has plummeted to 117, but he did finish 31st in last season’s Race to Dubai. Nevertheless, the 26-year-old is determined to recapture the glories of 2012 and has made the perfect start to his 2015 European Tour campaign.

“If I play well, then the ranking will take care of itself. Last season wasn’t as bad as people say, it’s tough playing on both tours and I struggled in the U.S.

“But I feel very comfortable in Europe and South Africa and I’m close if not there already to my game in 2012. I’ve been playing well for the last month, I’m in a really good state of mind, I’ve gone back to my 2012 driver and I changed to a claw-grip on the greens three months ago, so that’s just getting better.
“Plus it was obviously a mistake in 2013 to part ways with Zack [Rasego, his caddy], but I’ve learnt from that, we’ve had a good chat and that was the end of it. When he pulls me off a shot, I trust him,” Grace said after his faultless round.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel fired seven birdies but it was another bad day in terms of consistency for South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer, with swing mistakes and errors on the green leading to four bogeys, which left him seven off the pace on three-under after a 69.

Grace managed to avoid the sort of momentum-killers that have been plaguing Schwartzel recently.

“It’s one of those courses where you can get going and I didn’t really make any mistakes. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a look at a bogey in my round, but it’s nice to get the ball-striking going and make a few putts. It was good shot after good shot, I like this course, it suits my game,” a delighted Grace said.

Roos also had one of those glorious days, a bogey on the par-three 12th, when he missed the green off the tee, his only blemish. The 34-year-old knew it was going to be a fine day when he eagled his opening hole, the par-four 10th.

“The first hole, when I holed out with my second from 163 metres, was just the ice-breaker I needed. The five-iron came out perfectly, it looked good all the way but I couldn’t see it go in because of the slope of the green. One guy put his hand up at the green and I just started laughing and took it from there,” Roos said after his fabulous round.

“I felt good about the day before I started, I was comfortable, swinging nicely and I had some great birdie putts on the back nine, where there are more birdie opportunities. The front nine is quite tough, especially the opening holes. Six is the only really short one and I was able to take advantage there, and then I had a nice putt on the last from 15 feet. The ninth is playing long and I had to hit a six-iron in, a bit into the wind. But I was rolling the putts very nicely today.”

The 36-year-old Ford, who has only just won his European Tour card after nine previous visits to Tour School, bogeyed the first hole but only dropped one more shot, on the par-five 13th. Superb iron-play gave him plenty of birdie opportunities and the man who was toying with the idea of giving up golf to become a postman converted eight of them.

“I’m very happy, it’s a dream start to the season after getting my card for the first time. The swing felt good and the accuracy of my iron-play – I was inside 10 feet nine or ten times – gave me lots of opportunities and my putting was solid,” Ford said.

But none of the leaders will be sleeping easy with Willett, who triumphed at Sun City in such emphatic fashion, lurking only four strokes back from Grace after a faultless 66.

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Donald retained the lead after a solid round of three-under-par 69 lifted him to 13-under-par heading into the final round with a one-stroke lead over Willett. Fisher is a further two shots back on 10-under-par after a two-under 70, a solid round with a cold putter.

Donald was the star of the second round with his nine-under-par 63, but Saturday belonged to Willett, the 27-year-old shooting a superb seven-under-par 65 to vault into contention, after starting the day five strokes behind the leader.

The other member of the final three-ball, Alexander Levy, had an awful day, a four-over-par 76 seeing him drop down the leaderboard to two-under-par, 11 strokes off the pace.

Victory for Willett would be a tremendous coup for a former amateur world number one who is looking to elevate his rapidly-growing standing and hunting his second European Tour title after winning the BMW International Open in Cologne, Germany, in 2012.

“I’m heading in the right direction, so that’s great. All three of us are in good positions to win and we’re obviously playing good golf. I’ll bring exactly the same approach to the final round; some of the greats win at best 10 tournaments in their career and this is only my sixth year on tour, hopefully I’ll have another 20 years out here, so there’s no rush,” Willett said after his low round of the day.

Fisher birdied the second hole but dropped a shot at the third before picking up further shots at the fifth and ninth holes. But he came home in level-par 36 after a bogey on the 16^th and a birdie on the last and was left mulling over missed opportunities.

“It was another tough day. I felt like I probably played better than my score suggested, two‑under again. It was a similar story to yesterday, I felt like I hit it pretty good, gave myself a lot of chances and just couldn’t buy a putt.

“I felt like I’ve hit some good shots in there and haven’t got anything from it. So from two days, to not hole a putt to finally hole one on 18, hopefully that gives me some confidence and momentum going into tomorrow,” Fisher, the first-round leader, said.

From a South African perspective, Louis Oosthuizen’s 69 was one of the low rounds of the day, lifting him into a tie for fifth on four-under-par, one shot behind Marcel Siem.

But it was a disastrous day for Charl Schwartzel, who started the round seven shots back but birdied the first two holes to raise hopes of a charge by a local man. But he immediately bogeyed the par-four third and went out in level-par 36. An eagle-three on the 10^th, sinking a wonderful lengthy putt, raised hopes again, but Schwartzel, who is not comfortable with his swing at the moment, imploded thereafter with a double-bogey on the notorious 14^th hole and bogeys on 11, 13, 16 and 18, ending the day on level-par.

While Schwartzel’s frustration eventually boiled over, Donald was the picture of calm and composure and it is he who is probably the favourite to claim the $1.25 million first prize on Sunday.

“Around this course, shooting 69, that’s what the game plan was, to keep my nose ahead. I was very calm and collected out there and I’m as pleased with my game as I’ve been for a long while.

“I putted well, but not as well as yesterday, but the course was a little tougher today with the pin positions and it was hard to be aggressive. But I was very consistent and solid, just a couple of loose shots on the back nine. Tomorrow I’ll go out and trust my game, just keep my head down. Mentally, I think I’m stronger, trying to be positive out there and turn that to good golf,” Donald said.

The man who turns 37 on Sunday was typically unruffled in going to four-under for the day through 10 holes, but the 13^th was a stumbling block as he dropped his first shot in 42 holes. A huge roar on his backswing from the 14^th hole disrupted his drive, which landed in the fairway bunker. He then thinned his shot out of the sand, clipping some trees and finishing well short of the green and still impeded by branches. Donald did well to get on the green and two-putt for bogey from there.

He pushed his second putt badly on the par-four 17^th, leading to a three-putt bogey, but the lead was restored on 18 as he hit a wonderful eight-iron approach shot from the rough to set up a closing birdie.

The quality of Willett’s iron play led to four relatively easy birdies on the front nine – his eagle putt on nine shaved the hole – but the back nine also brought him some challenges, despite the best of starts with birdies on the 10^th and 11^th holes.

But the son of a preacher man made two excellent par saves: on the par-three 12^th he got up-and-down after short-siding himself in the greenside bunker, and on 15, which he described as the most important hole of his round, Willett made a 12-foot par putt after his drive sailed into the long grass and scrub behind the nasty left-hand fairway bunker.

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Donald had picked off four more birdies in another blemish-free round to move to 14-under-par after 12 holes, four ahead of Danny Willett and Ross Fisher.

That trio are five shots ahead of fourth-placed Marcel Siem and Thongchai Jaidee, so a fourth English win at Sun City after the triumphs of Lee Westwood in 2010 and 2011 and Nick Faldo in 1994 seems inevitable.

Donald’s astute iron play and general nous around a course that demands plenty of strategy and sound judgement saw him gain shots at the par-three fourth and seventh holes, and the two par-fives around the turn.

The former world number one is in a great position to celebrate his birthday on Sunday with a victory that marks his return to the highest echelons of the world game.

Fisher was not able to close the gap on Donald, despite playing solid golf as he went two-under through 12 holes. The tall 34-year-old picked up birdies on the second, fifth and ninth holes, but found trouble on the par-four third when his drive landed in thick rough and he had to chip out sideways on his way to a bogey.

Willett was on fire on the front nine, turning in 32 after birdies on the second, fifth, sixth and ninth holes, and he kept the pressure on Donald with further birdies on 10 and 11. A good par-save from the greenside bunker on the par-three 12^th kept him on track but a poor approach on the 13^th saw him eventually drop a shot.

Donald found the middle of the green on the 195-metre par-three fourth hole and sank a lovely 20-foot putt for his first birdie of the day and Alexander Levy, playing in the final three-ball with Donald and Fisher, also birdied the hole, but found himself in trouble on the third and sixth holes, the Frenchman dropping shots on each to slip back to five-under-par. A double-bogey on the par-three seventh and another dropped shot on the 10^th pushed him further back.

South African hope Charl Schwartzel suffered a disastrous double-bogey seven at the 14^th, a wayward tee shot being compounded by a visit to the love-grass and the bunker in front of the green, and is back on two-under for the tournament.

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