Bekker was part of LIV Golf\u2019s inaugural field at the 2022 London tournament. Four seasons later, he\u2019s excited about the opportunity to return to the league as a full-time member.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking back on it now, I had the opportunity to play a few more events, and now I\u2019m like, well, maybe I should have played them,\u201d Bekker said. \u201cThe water was a bit rough at that stage and didn\u2019t know what was going to happen, so I played it a bit safe. Luckily, I\u2019ve been given another opportunity this week, and hopefully I can take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janewattananond won four tournaments in 2019 when he became a top-50 world player, and currently at age 30, still has plenty of years left in his competitive career. After shooting a second-round 67 to advance to the weekend, he shot a 66 on Saturday that included four birdies in a six-hole stretch to end his front nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very big prize at the end of the day,\u201d Janewattananond said. \u201cThose three spots up for grabs, it would give me freedom to play wherever I want and security for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Bjerregaard, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, said earning full-time LIV Golf status would be career-changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I am in my career right now,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s probably that or retirement. Yeah, that would mean a lot for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although nothing is guaranteed, Lee has played so well this week that there may be just two spots available for the remainder of the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not playing for one spot,\u201d said Janewattananond. \u201cI don\u2019t have to worry about him. I just have to worry about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe played great today,\u201d added Bjerregaard, playing in the same group as Lee on Saturday. \u201cBut I would be happy with any of the other two spots, so that\u2019s fine. I can finish third. I wouldn\u2019t mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
LEADERBOARD<\/p>\n
The top three players after Sunday\u2019s final round of the 36-hole weekend shootout at Black Diamond Ranch will claim the three available LIV Golf wild card spots for 2026. The top 10 players and ties earn exemption into The International Series on the Asian Tour. The leaderboard after Saturday\u2019s first 18 holes:<\/p>\n
Richard T. Lee, Canada \u2013 64
Oliver Bekker, South Africa \u2013 66
Jazz Janewattananond, Thailand \u2013 66
Anthony Kim, USA \u2013 66
Lucas Bjerregaard, Denmark \u2013 67
Max Kennedy, Ireland \u2013 69
Takanori Konishi, Japan \u2013 69
Joe Pagdin, England \u2013 69
Sarit Suwannarut, Thailand \u2013 69
Jeunghun Wang, South Korea \u2013 69
Bjorn Hellegren, Sweden \u2013 70
Matt Jones, Australia \u2013 70
Julian Perico, Peru \u2013 70
Kieran Vincent, Zimbabwe \u2013 70
Rattanon Wannasrichan, Thailand – 70
Cory Crawford, Australia \u2013 71
Travis Smyth, Australia \u2013 71
Christopher Wood, Australia \u2013 71
Jose Islas, Mexico \u2013 72
Miguel Tabuena, Philippines – 72
Sadom Kaewkanjana, Thailand \u2013 73
Danthai Boonma, Thailand \u2013 76\u00a0<\/p>\n
ROUND 3 NOTES<\/p>\n
AK\u2019S LAST PUTT: The lengthy par-saving putt by Anthony Kim on the final hole Saturday took its time to drop, as it circled the lip of the cup before falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice to see it actually go in as opposed to go out,\u201d Kim said. \u201cBut that\u2019s just the way the game goes. Sometimes you have six months where balls are lipping out, and you have six months where the balls are lipping in.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully I\u2019ve had enough lip outs now where they\u2019ll start falling my way, and I believe that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bekker was part of LIV Golf\u2019s inaugural field at the 2022 London tournament. Four seasons later, he\u2019s excited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-404990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}