Brandon Stone revealed an early three putt inspired him to fire a 64 and put himself in contention to claim a hat-trick of European Tour wins on home soil at the 2020 Joburg Open.
The 27-year-old claimed his maiden European Tour victory at the 2016 BMW SA Open hosted by City of Ekurhuleni and was victorious again at the following season's Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Those two events will be the next two destinations on the Race to Dubai as the South African Swing takes full effect but first Stone will be looking to complete the home set at Randpark Golf Club.
He fired a brilliant round in wet conditions in round three to sit five shots off the lead but it did not look like he would get that close when he three putted the third for a bogey.
"I had a three putt bogey, that really fired me up, I think that woke me up this morning," he said. "A three putt bogey on a short par four really gets the juices flowing in my camp.
"It was really solid from there on. I missed the first three greens in a row and the next green I missed was 18 so it was just really solid, really low stress, and I kind of coasted along.
"I'm a professional golfer, I'm not William Shakespeare, I don't actually have the words to describe it all.
"We played great regardless, I think you could have put me on a sunny day with blue skies and I would have scored the same score. I just played that solid."
Stone knows how to go low on a Sunday, having carded a remarkable 60 as he won the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open in 2018 to become a Rolex Series champion, and he knows he may have to do something special again over the Firethorn Course.
"Every tournament you play, you wouldn't mind winning," he said. "It's the only one out of the trilogy of South African co-sanctioned events that I haven't got my name on yet.
"If you'd offered me a 64 when I woke up this morning and with the delay yesterday, I'd have happily signed that scorecard and woke up Sunday morning with a task to do."
