MALELANE, South Africa — South African Brandon Stone stretched his Alfred Dunhill Championship lead to three shots Saturday with a six-under-par 66 for a third-round total of 199 in the European Tour event.
The 23-year-old winner of one competition on the circuit carded seven birdies at Leopard Creek Country Club, which borders Kruger Park game reserve in north-eastern South Africa.
His only slip on a hot early southern hemisphere summer day was a bogey four at the 12th hole of a 6,663-meter (7,287-yard) layout carved out of thick bush.
"I got off to a good start — anytime you hit your approach to a foot is a good start — and made a few birdies early on which got the round going," said Stone.
"I played some good golf today, holed some good putts, hit some good shots. I tried to give myself a lot of birdie opportunities.
"There was some ball-striking out there today between Charl and myself that was quite impressive, even if I say so myself."
Defending champion Charl Schwartzel, fellow South African Keith Horne and Chris Hanson from England share second place on 202.
Former US Masters champion Schwartzel, seeking a fifth Dunhill victory in 12 attempts, fired a 68, Horne a 67 and Hanson a 68 over the par-72 track.
After reaching the turn in a level-par 35, Schwartzel collected five birdies in six holes to move within two strokes of Stone.
However, he came unstuck at the par-three 16th, finding water from the tee, and holing a difficult putt for a bogey four.
Stone, cautious after seeing what happened to Schwartzel, found thick green-side rough at the same hole, but saved par with a pitch and long putt.
Both golfers parred the last two holes despite a wayward tee shot from Schwartzel at 18 and an equally poor second shot from Stone on the same hole.
Hanson, the lone non-South African among the top four on the leaderboard, carded three birdies and one bogey on his outward nine.
But the Englishman parred only one hole on a rollercoaster inward nine that included five birdies and three bogeys.
Scot David Drysdale fired a 64 — the lowest round of the week — to lie six shots behind 2016 South African Open champion Stone.
A flawless round for a golfer seeking his first European Tour victory after 20 years as a professional included five birdies on the first nine and three more on the second nine.
Kumar leads Panasonic Open
India's Mukesh Kumar took the lead after the second round while Lee Sung of South Korea captivated with a hole-in-one in the fog-hit Panasonic India Open golf tournament in New Delhi Saturday.
Kumar dominated play with five birdies for an eight-under-par 136 total on the third day of the Asia Tour event which had been earlier reduced to 54 holes and three rounds.
Kumar, who has won over 120 professional titles in his career, gave himself a two-shot lead heading into the final round of the $400,000 event.
It was Lee who brightened up proceedings at Delhi Golf Club, which saw seven hours of play being lost on the first two days due to heavy fog.
Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond (69) and Mithun Perera (68) of Sri Lanka shared second place with Indian duo Khalin Joshi (71) and Shankar Das (67).
Perera needs to win the tournament to secure his full playing rights on the Asian Tour in 2017 before heading into the season finale next week.
Defending champion Chiragh Kumar of India also stayed on course, with 73 players making the halfway cut before the final round Sunday.
