Ernie Els and Wayne Westner combined for a 14-under-par performance Saturday, giving South Africa a whopping 13-stroke lead after three rounds of the World Cup of Golf.
The two big hitters posted identical scores for the third straight day, this time with 7-under 65s. That gave them each 205 totals and an aggregate total of 410, 22-under for the tournament.Scotland was in second place at 423, with the United States third at 426.
Els and Westner combined for 16 birdies, with Els making seven and Westner nine, along with bogeys at holes 10 and 11. Els posted the only bogey-free round of the day on the tight, 7,002-yard Erinvale Country Club course.
Westner shot a scorching 30 on the front nine, with six birdies on the final seven holes.
"It was wonderful," Els said. "Sixteen birdies tell the story. We drove well, we hit our irons well and we putted well."
Their combined score of 130 was two strokes off the one-day record of 128 set by Fred Couples and Davis Love III of the United States on their way to victory in Puerto Rico in 1994.
Couples and Love won the tournament a record four times in a row, including last year. But this year's U.S. team of British Open champion Tom Lehman and U.S. Open champion Steve Jones said it would take a miracle for the U.S. to win again.