The joint overnight leader moved to 12-under-par 132 with a two shot lead, but he could have a fight on his hands as he tries to hunt down a second victory country’s premier golf development circuit.
A total of 23 players finished in red numbers at the third event in the IGT Tour’s Race to Q-School series, including former Nomads SA Boys U-19 Stroke Play champion Paul Boshoff and Race to Q-School #2 winner Damian Naicker.
Boshoff and Naicker both fired seven birdies in a flawless display to share the low round honours with McIntyre and a repeat performance will put some serious pressure on the leader.
“I definitely expect to feel pressure in the final round, but it doesn’t scare me,” said the 20-year-old BDGA Academy player.
“When I won my first IGT Tour event last year, Christiaan Bezuidenhout was chasing me hard in that final round. I kept a cool head and got the job done and it’s great to have that kind of experience to draw on. You’ve got to shut out the other competitors and play shot-for-shot, hole-by-hole.”
McIntyre turned three under after birdies at three, seven and eight and dipped eight shots below par with an eagle at 10, followed by a string of three birdies.
His flawless run ended abruptly with a bogey at 14. He followed a birdie at 15 with another drop at 16, but protected the lead with pars at the closing holes.
“The front nine was a little slow, but steady and I holed some good putts to get under par,” he said. “I hit it close on the back nine to inside three feet at the first couple of holes and the birdies came really quickly.
“I went low in the last two rounds at the Race to Q-School #2 last week, shot 63 and 65 at Waterkloof to finish second, so I did expect to be challenging again this week. If I learned anything from the mistakes today, it is not to get ahead of myself.
“I started thinking that this was going to be a really, really low one, but then I made a few silly mistakes coming home with soft drops at 14 and 16. I managed to keep it together, though. The aim on the Race to Q-School series is to put myself in contention and test myself under pressure. It’s the only way to learn to compete and win. I’ve done that in the last two weeks. Now I just need to push to through to the finish line.”
Boshoff from the BDGA Academy moved to 10 under, while Naicker from the GFG Academy rocketed to joint seventh on four under. Seasoned John McClean, Bryce Myburgh and joint first round leader Nico du Buisson tied for third to stay in touch at six under with respective rounds of 66, 69 and 71.
SECOND ROUND SCORES
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs are indicated as AMA:
132 - David McIntyre AMA 67 65
134 - Paul Boshoff AMA 69 65
138 - John McClean (NIR) 72 66, Bryce Myburgh 69 69, Nico du Buisson AMA 67 71
139 - Dylan Docherty 69 70
140 - Damian Naicker 75 65, Jacques de Villiers 70 70
141 - Kyle Barker 72 69, Jonathan Waschefort 69 72, Martin Rohwer 70 71
142 - Gregg Blainey (ENG) 72 70, Ruan Korb AMA 72 70, David Ashley (ENG) 74 68, Keanu Pestana AMA 72 70, Gary Daoust (BEL) 72 70, Divan Marais 75 67, Coert Groenewald 70 72
143 - Stephan Erasmus AMA 70 73, Dean O'Riley 73 70, Steven Le Roux AMA 70 73, Maritz Wessels 70 73, Ruhan van Dijk AMA 72 71
144 - Tristan Nel AMA 71 73
145 - Teagan Moore 75 70, Walter Behr AMA 73 72
146 - Philip Geerts AMA (ITA) 73 73, NJ van der Walt AMA 73 73, JP Rousseau AMA 71 75
147 - Duane Keun 73 74, TJ Bekker 78 69, Matt Wollmann (ZIM) 79 68, Stephan de Beer 76 71, Jason Ackerman AMA 70 77, WM Coetzee AMA 77 70, Jonty B Shelton AMA 78 69
148 - Wesley Baptiste AMA 73 75, Eric Nel AMA 74 74, Phillip Montgomery 73 75, Gareth Anderson AMA 77 71, Johan van der Wath 72 76, Matthew Hands AMA 75 73, JP Schmidt AMA 72 76
149 - Marco de Beer AMA 73 76, Hendrikus Stoop AMA 75 74, Albert Visser AMA 75 74, Matthew Spacey 75 74
150 - Jason Thalrose AMA 74 76, Brandon Lydon AMA 77 73
151 - Mpho Mafishe 77 74, Jadrick Fourie AMA 76 75, Chase Paton AMA 74 77, Keaton Slatter AMA 77 74
Missed the cut:-
152 - Garth Wolter 76 76, Dwayne Coetzee 77 75, LJ Lowies AMA 74 78, Shaun van Tonder 75 77, Daniel Joubert AMA 79 73
153 - Michael Kok AMA 75 78
154 - Donneo Catanho AMA 77 77
155 - Duan Nagel AMA 83 72, Sam Metcalfe AMA 78 77, Tiaan Bronkhorst AMA 80 75
156 - Heinrich Bronkhorst AMA 77 79
157 - Nash De Klerk AMA 81 76, Marc De Jager AMA 78 79
159 - Jaco Van Der Merwe AMA 81 78
162 - Ruan Enslin AMA 79 83
163 - Cameron Gunning 82 81
165 - Haydon Heres AMA 76 89
169 - Phillip De Waal AMA 82 87
DSQ - Pieter Moolman 72 DSQ
Missed the cut:-
RTD - Angelo Marques AMA RTD
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
