Shortly after 7:30 a.m. Friday, Aldrich Potgieter was in a beer tent to the right of the fairway on the 17th hole at Torrey Pines South.

Potgieter was there to retrieve an errant tee shot while finishing up his delayed second round in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Even in the unlikely event he wanted a drink at that hour, there would have been a problem: The South African native won’t turn 21 until September.

You’d never know it watching him golf this week. He made par on that hole after getting a drop, and some eight hours and one hole on the course later, Potgieter was standing over a 5-foot birdie putt to tie for the lead in the PGA Tour event.

He rolled it in to close out a 5-under 67 that moved him to 7-under through the first three rounds of the Farmers. And even though he was passed later in the afternoon by Harris English (-9) and Andrew Novak (-8), Potgieter will join that duo at 11:11 a.m. Saturday in the final group for the final round.

A victory Saturday would make Potgieter easily the youngest winner of this tournament, which has been played every year but one since 1952. Jon Rahm was 22 when he made a 60-foot eagle putt to clinch his first PGA Tour victory here in 2017.

Breaking a record like that would be nothing new for Potgieter. Exactly one year ago Friday, he became the youngest player to win on the Korn Ferry Tour with a victory in The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic.

“It feels like a lifetime ago,” said Potgieter, who also finished tied for second in a DP World Tour event last month in South Africa when he bogeyed the final hole.

The 5-foot-11, 211-pound Potgieter has been somewhat of a hit-and-miss player early in his pro career. He is the longest hitter on tour — he averaged 336.5 yards on his drives last year and was at 338.5 through his first two events this year — but he missed the cut in 13 of his 24 Korn Ferry tournaments. However, his victory and two other top-10s allowed him to sneak into the top 30 in the points standings and earn his PGA Tour card.

The rookie began his season with a pair of missed cuts in Honolulu and Palm Desert, but he made some adjustments working with his new coach, Justin Parsons.

He opened this tournament with a 66 on the North Course, struggled to a 76 on the South in Thursday’s wind but took advantage of more favorable scoring conditions Friday. He made a 2 on four holes — birdies on three par-3 holes (8, 11, 16) and a hole-out from 173 yards for eagle on the second-hardest hole on the course, the par-4 12th.

“I had a perfect 8-iron distance, a little bit breezy into us, so had something to stop the ball on top of that plateau that I had to land it on,” Potgieter said. “I’ve seen the video once really quickly, but from the fairway, looked all the way good.”

Potgieter said he planned to have dinner Friday with his caddie and his dad, then tackle his biggest task.

“Just to get to sleep tonight’s probably the biggest thing,” he said, “and get deep sleep. We’ll use the Whoop (wearable fitness tracker) a little bit and work our way around it. But yeah, looking forward to tomorrow.”

Posner is a freelance writer.