Birthday boy Coetzee fires 69 to move into contention

HOYLAKE, England - George Coetzee's birthday always falls during Open Championship week. The South African gave himself a tidy 3-under 69 to celebrate his 28th. When asked if he planned to have birthday dinner and drinks tonight with his girlfriend and mom, Coetzee said, 'Yeah, a couple of Cokes.'

When you're one shot behind Rory McIlroy at the Open Championship, a bit of restraint is in order. There will plenty of drinks come Sunday if a certain is jug involved.

This marks Coetzee's fourth Open Championship. In his debut at St. George's, he opened with back-to-back 69s and finished the week in 15th.

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'At one stage in my career I averaged 69s for majors,' Coetzee said, laughing.

He won four times on South Africa's Sunshine Tour before winning for the first time on the European Tour in February at the Joburg Open. That got him into the WGC-Accenture Match Play where he took down Steve Stricker and Patrick Reed before losing to Jason Day in the third round.

There was a point on Friday when Coetzee looked up at the leaderboard and saw his named tied with McIlroy at 6 under. Ceotzee went on to say that the moment was obvious because he went on to bogey the next two holes.

With winds gusting considerably on Friday, Coetzee played the front nine in even par before going on a tremendous run - 2-3-2 - midway through his back nine. He three-putted the par-5 16th and then found the hay on the 17th to drop two shots. On the par-5 18th, Coetzee hit driver, 2-iron left and then pitched it up nicely to 6 feet making birdie to finish at 5-under 139.

Coetzee grew up in Pretoria, which he said is around 4,600 feet above sea level, on parkland courses. Up until the age of 16, he couldn't break 80 on coastline tracks. Eventually he found his way, winning a Sunshine Tour event on a links course. He's grown to even enjoy the style.

'There's a lot more imagination,' said Coetzee, 'and you can putt from anywhere.'

And with that, he was off to put his feet up, have a birthday pop and watch the wind blow.

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