The third round of the South African Open Championship was suspended as a result of heavy thunderstorms that hit Sun City on Saturday.
Play was suspended at 1:04pm because of inclement weather. There were two attempts made to restart play, but continued storm activity as well as a waterlogged Gary Player Country Club course forced the decision to abandon play for the day at 5pm.
The third round will resume at 7am on Sunday, and the fourth and final round will not start before 9am.
“The safety of the players is our foremost concern,” said Reinard Kilian, the Sunshine Tour’s tournament director. “We had planned for bad weather today, but unfortunately the storms came through quicker than expected, and we didn’t have any guarantees that it would be safe to go back out there at all today so we made the final determination to call off play for the day.”
Play will resume on Sunday morning with Justin Harding leading the field on 11 under par through 13 holes. He is one stroke clear of Oliver Bekker and Daniel van Tonder, who are also through 13 holes. Hennie du Plessis is next best on nine under par through 13.
No golf at the moment while we are still in a weather delay during the third round of the 111th SA Open.
Updates to follow.#GreatnessBeginsHere #SunshineTour #SAOpen #Nedbank #SunCity #SunInternational#GolfRSA #GaryPlayerCountryClub #SSGolf pic.twitter.com/egGLg7q02O
— Sunshine Tour (@Sunshine_Tour) December 4, 2021
No movement at the moment on moving day due to the threat of lightning ⚡️
Leaderboard with the leaders still having five holes to play:
1 J Harding -11🇿🇦
2 D van Tonder -10🇿🇦
2 O Bekker -10🇿🇦
4 H du Plessis -9🇿🇦
5 N Schietekat -9🇿🇦#GreatnessBeginsHere #SAOpen2021 pic.twitter.com/zc2s24teHP— Sunshine Tour (@Sunshine_Tour) December 4, 2021
WEATHER UPDATE
Round three has been suspended for the day.
The leaderboard as it stands with a number of players still to complete their round.
@SuperSportBlitz #GreatnessBeginsHere #SunshineTour #SAOpen #Nedbank #SunCity #SunInternational#GolfRSA #GaryPlayerCountryClub pic.twitter.com/kZ19mbm8y7
— Sunshine Tour (@Sunshine_Tour) December 4, 2021
