Ewen Ferguson admits it’s ‘good fun’ battling the continuing windy conditions as he heads to a hopeful best finish of the season in the SDC Championship at Eastern Cape in South Africa.
After strong winds forced a halt to play near lunch on Friday, darkness on day three again affected the inaugural co-sanctioned event on golf’s ‘moving day’.
Ferguson, 26, had just birdied the sixth hole of his second round on Friday and returned for a 7am Saturday restart, eventually posting a round 70, and then after a short break he added a third round 68 for a six-under tally.
Scot Ewen Ferguson enjoying the tough windy conditions at Eastern Cape in South Africa
The double Tour winning Scot was sharing ninth place but with 21a players still to complete round three, including the leading on-course duo of Norwegian Kristian Krogh Johannessen and England’s Matthew Baldwin, who were tied on 11-under after 13 holes.
When the second round resumed at 7am local time Saturday, Ferguson bogeyed nine and then closed off his round with nine straight pars. He headed into his third round to grab four birdies from his third to ninth holes, moving to six-under before bogeys at 10 and 12 and back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16, and a pair of closing pars.
He said: “It’s been a long day but I feel good, a good par there at the last was a nice way to finish.
“The thing is the day seemed to go quite quickly and when you’re out there playing, you’re thinking of your next shot all the time, so all of a sudden, I think the day went quite quick.
“My game seems to be getting better as the season progresses while I feel the windy conditions probably suit me at bit, as well, in terms of being windy and forcing you to hit is quite straight which is a strength of my game.
“So, I’m likening it. I like being here. It’s good fun. I’ll go out and have a nice dinner with a couple of the Scottish guys, and look forward to tomorrow”.
Ferguson also praised his caddy in helping keep the Scot focussed on two of three days now where yardage books have been pretty much useless with the wind direction changing by the day.
He said: “If it wasn’t for my caddy because I am useless in gauging wind directions plus they’ve moved tee boxes up and to the sides, so I’ve struggled with that.
“So, I’ve relied on my caddy and he’s been great so far.
Ferguson’s best finish in his six events this year was a share of 28th in last month’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
Fifer Connor Syme posted second and third round scores of 72 to be lying at level par while Richie Ramsay had dropped to two-under when play was halted.
Fellow Scots David Law and Callum Hill each missed the eventual level par
