Holywood starlet Tom McKibbin will go out in the final group on Sunday for the second week running but he faces a near-impossible task in his quest for his maiden win in the Challenge Tour's Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa.

While the Newtownabbey teenager (19) closed with two birdies and carded a six-under 66 at Durban Country Club to move into solo second place, he knows winning is almost mission impossible as he trails runaway leader JC Ritchie by 10 strokes on 15-under par.

Scores

"My strategy for tomorrow is to try and go out and play the way I did today and see where that leaves me at the end of the week," said McKibbin, who made four birdies in his first 10 holes, bogeyed the 11th but then birdied the 14th, 17th and 18th.

"JC is obviously ripping it up, and it is very, very impressive, and I look forward to watching him tomorrow.

"I am learning loads here in South Africa. I can see my game is good enough to contend down here, so it's good and I'm glad I came down to play."

Six strokes clear overnight in his bid for back-to-back wins, South African Ritchie went bogey-free for the third day in a row, adding a seven-under 65 to rounds of 61 and 63 to get to 25-under par.

He clipped two strokes off the previous 54-hole Challenge Tour scoring record set by Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg in the 2012 Rolex Trophy.

"It was another brilliant day," said Ritchie (28), who is 43-under par for his last seven rounds, averaging 65.57.

"This golf course has been very generous to me. I keep trying to respect this golf course as much as I can and it keeps giving. I'm just very pleased."

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 26: JC Ritchie during day 3 of the Jonsson Workwear Open at Durban Country Club and Mount Edgecombe Country Club on February 26, 2022 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Carl Fourie/Gallo Images)

At 25-under par, he is closing in on the 72-hole total of 28-under-par 260 set by Louis Oosthuizen in the 2008 Telkom PGA Championship at Country Club Johannesburg.

His 54-hole aggregate total of 189 is also a Challenge Tour record, three shots lower than the previous best of 192, which was shared between Juan Parron, at the 2006 Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge, and Birgir Hafthorsson at the 2017 Cordon Golf Open.

With back-to-back victories in his sights tomorrow, nine-time Sunshine Tour winner Ritchie has the chance to make further history, with the lowest winning total in both Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour history within touching distance, which stand at 29 under par and 28 under par, respectively.

With his 10-shot lead, he's also in line to match or better Oosthuizen's 14-shot margin of victory in that 2008 Telkom PGA Championship.

To put his score in perspective, Tiger Woods won the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots,

"My ball-striking was pretty awesome again today. It helps to make easy decisions when you're hitting the ball good and giving yourself chances,” Ritchie said.

"The only goal is to focus on my process and what I’ve been doing and working on for the last two years. As long as I keep focusing on that then the game takes care of itself.

"It makes it easier to hit the shots where I want to hit them. I’ve dreamt of having a lead like this, and as much as I can I’m going to try and keep playing with my eyes closed but have them open just to enjoy it.”

McKibbin was pleased to take advantage of perfect conditions to move up from joint fifth overnight to solo second.

"It felt good," he said of his round. "Conditions were a little easier today with not as much wind. “Obviously, I had a nice birdie-birdie finish to get to six under and hopefully, I can go out and have another good round tomorrow.

"Over the last year, I've been trying to learn to stay patient and let things happen. There's no point in trying to force things or trying to press.

"You just have to let your good golf dictate the score. At the end of the day, your score is your score."

It was also a good day for Kinsale's John Murphy, who made the cut on the mark but made six birdies before dropping a shot at the last and carded a 67 that catapulted him to tied 24th on nine-under.

"I've never been so disappointed with the 67, but that's golf," Murphy said. "I had it going out there, and I hit it lovely and then missed a few chances coming in and bogeyed the last, but that's golf. So I'm just trying to regroup, sort a few things out and go again tomorrow.

"I love Durban Country Club," he said. "I said it from the minute I got here. I love the set-up this week and the shot values out here, and if you play well, you'll score well.

"The first day, I didn't play well and didn't score as well as I would've liked. But today, I started hitting some good shots, and they got rewarded, and that's just the way this golf course set up."

Like McKibbin, the Cork man (23) is enjoying the South African swing even if the heat is a challenge for his fair skin.

"It's great," he said. "It's certainly very enjoyable to be down here in the nice weather. I'm not sure my skin is too used to it, but we're getting there. I am putting on more and more sun cream every day to adjust.

"It takes it out of you playing in the sun and the heat every day. Energy preservation is very important down here, but I'm trying to find a few things to do that don't involve golf in my downtime and trying to do as much as that as possible."

He will be looking to go low again on Sunday and moving up the Road to Mallorca rankings.
"Same again, really. I hit it lovely out there today," Murphy said of his final round strategy. "I just need to iron out a few things on the range and get ready to go again tomorrow.

"It's just another game of golf, so we will take it one shot at a time and see what it adds up to at the end."