Hennie Otto couldn’t match his second-round pyrotechnics in Saturday’s third round of the Vodacom Championship, but his 67 was enough to keep him four shots clear going into the final round at Pretoria Country Club.

It was cruise-control for the 33-year-old who set a course record 11-under 61 in the second round and a Sunshine Tour 36-hole record of 18-under 126.

“Normally after one like that, 72 is a good score,” laughed Otto. “But the birdies are out there – but you have to hit the fairways.”

He goes into the final round on 23-under-par.

His round was punctuated by three bogeys and none of the brilliance of the second round, but there were moments when his playing partners Thomas Aiken and Jbe’ Kruger must have wondered if he was bulletproof.

For they are the only two who had any kind of chance of chasing him down, starting the round five shots off Otto’s lead. And surely he couldn’t be that good again?

Whatever Otto did, Aiken had one of those yo-yo rounds most golfers would prefer to forget. His best efforts brought him five birdies, but three bogeys negated any chance of a charge at the lead.

And Kruger was much more consistent, but the adage about ‘putting for dough’ was never truer as he was unable to convert a number of chances in his round. Although he made no bogeys, six birdies were not enough to eat more substantially into Otto’s lead.

“Jbe’ played well today,” said Otto. “He didn’t want to let go.”

In the end, Kruger finished on 19-under after a 66, and Aiken fought his way to 15-under for the tournament with his 70.

Otto, while the struggle was going on around him, was as serene as he has ever been on a golf course.

He opened with a birdie, and didn’t seem too phased when he bogeyed the third. Instead, he hit back with three more birdies before the turn.

When two more bogeys cropped up on his card – at the 11th and the 13th – he followed them with birdies, and, for good measure, he found another birdie on 15 to keep the charge from Kruger at bay.

“After I made the third bogey, my caddie Cliffie Botha told me that it would happen if I just gave it a chance,” he said. And that’s precisely what happened.

In the end, Kruger had to scramble for his par on the 18th to stay within four shots of Otto after Otto had a putt for eagle which just missed and a simple one-footer for birdie.

Grant Veenstra and Tjaart van der Walt were on 14-under in a share of fourth, with Branden Grace on 13-under in sixth.