Branden Grace birdied five of the last six holes to overtake Richard Finch at the top of the leaderboard with just one round of the Joburg Open to play.
Finch and Grace had shared the lead overnight, but Grace still had a few holes of his third round left to play on Sunday.
He completed his third round early on Sunday morning after rain and darkness ended play the day before, and he followed his run of three birdies from the 13th with two more on 17 and 18 to close his third round in a fine 7-under 65 on the tough 6,995-metre East Course.
“We got a bit unlucky with the weather yesterday,” he said, “but I was nice and fresh early this morning, and I’ll take that start to a day any day.”
Lengthy delays due to thunderstorms on the first two days meant some players had not began their second rounds at the start of the day, but by the time bad weather set in the third round was nearing its conclusion.
Grace’s 17-under-par total for 54 holes led England’s Richard Finch and George Coetzee who were on 14-under-par, with South Africans Michiel Bothma and Jbe’ Kruger a further stroke back.
