Ewen Ferguson vows to 'give it everything' in bid to land South African success

Ewen Ferguson is set to “give it everything” in a bid to land a third DP World Tour win in less than 12 months.

Ewen Ferguson prepares to play his second shot at the first hole in the third round of the Jonsson Workwear Open at The Club at Steyn City in South Africa. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images.

The 26-year-old Scot looked to be slipping out of contention in the Jonsson Workwear Open after dropping back-to-back shots on the 13th and 14th holes in the third round at The Club at Steyn City in Johannesburg.

But, in a classy response to those setbacks, Ferguson eagled the par-5 16th then birdied the next hole to breathe new life into his title challenge.

In signing for his second 66 of the week, the Bearsden man moved to 15-under-par, sitting joint-sixth on a tightly-packed leaderboard and just two shots off the lead.

“Yeah, that was good,” said Ferguson of his late fightback. “You are going to make mistakes when you are playing golf. It’s not always going to be plain sailing. I kind of got away with a couple in the middle of the round anyway so when I made those bogeys, I sort of thought ‘oh well, that made up for earlier’.

“I then hit a couple of great shots into 16 - driver, 7-wood into about three feet and tapped it in. Then, on the next, I gave myself a good chance and made that. I really wanted to birdie the last to maybe squeeze into the last round, but it’s still a good round.”

Ferguson won twice in his rookie season, making the breakthrough in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters before adding the ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle in Northern Ireland.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” he declared. You know what, you don’t get that many chances to win and when you have them,you just have to go for it. If it doesn’t work out, you come back and try and do it again. So I am just going to give it everything and see where that takes me.”

Germany’s Alexander Knappe fired a 65 to move into the lead on 17-under, one ahead of compatriot NIck Bachem, as well as home player Hennie Du Plessis, Swede Joakim Lagergren and Malaysian Gavin Green.

Connor Syme (79) sits in a tie for 50th on seven-under, three shots ahead of Calum Hill (74).