Ken Borland

ERPM Golf Club is one of the most prestigious courses in Gauteng but MJ Viljoen tamed it for the second day in succession on Thursday as he fired a five-under-par 67 to go to 13-under overall, enjoying a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Vodacom Championship Unlocked.

ERPM has been home for such famous golfers as Denis Hutchinson, Neville Sundelson, Neville Clarke, Dean van Staden, John Bland and Brett Liddle, but the 25-year-old Viljoen, who played much of his junior golf here, is seemingly the new darling of the Boksburg club judging by the warm reception he received when he arrived at the clubhouse in late afternoon with a handy lead over Jake Redman, who also shot a 67 on Thursday.

Viljoen’s round was built around a blazing run around the turn, which includes some of ERPM’s most notorious holes, as he collected five birdies in six holes from the water-lined eighth. It was a fabulous addition to the superb 64 he shot in the opening round.

“The whole front nine was actually very nice, I played brilliant golf but the putts just didn’t go in. And then I was a bit scruffy on the last five holes when I lost focus a bit, this is a little course but it takes it out of you. I felt I could have birdied every hole on the front nine, that’s how close I was hitting it, even though it was quite windy and gusty as well today, and the greens are starting to get firm.

“So I started playing five metres short because the greens are getting bouncy, tougher and tougher. I had a couple of good lines with the putter but my stroke did not feel as good as yesterday, I was pulling or pushing a couple of putts. It’s not easy backing up a 64, but I told myself to play like I was two-over-par, so I was in the mental state to do something good,” Viljoen said.

Apart from Redman, who eagled the par-five second, Viljoen will also have the evergreen order of merit leader Darren Fichardt, three shots behind after a brilliant 66, and the experienced duo of Danie van Tonder and Neil Schietekat, who both shot 70s to lie five shots back, to worry about in the final round.

Viljoen’s previous Sunshine Tour title came when he came from behind with a 65 to win the Sun Fish River Challenge three years ago, so now he is going to have to lead from the front if he is to become a multi-winner on tour.

“I’m just going to go out and enjoy myself. I feel I’m on the right track so I’m not going to be hassled if I’m having a bad round. I haven’t been in this position before, I like to think that I’m well-controlled under pressure, but that’s something I’ll think about when I go to bed this evening,” Viljoen said on Thursday afternoon.

“Hopefully they’ll put some water on the greens overnight and I’m going to come half-an-hour earlier to try and get my putting stroke again, that sort of thing you need to fix as soon as possible but I know exactly what I’m doing wrong. I’m not going to chase a good round, but just try and hit greens and get the putts in.”

Finishes of 19^th, 15^th and 12^th so far in the Rise Up Series have probably done a disservice to how well MJ Viljoen has been hitting the ball, but on Wednesday the Bloemfontein golfer put it all together with his putting and was able to post the really low score that has been threatening for a while now.

Viljoen shot a marvellous eight-under-par 64 on Wednesday to claim a two-shot lead after the first round of the Vodacom Championship Unlocked at ERPM Golf Club in Boksburg and said afterwards that recent hard work on his putting had paid off.

“It was lovely, a good day with nice weather in the morning and I’m very happy with how I played. A couple of things that I have been working on came together nicely. In the last two years I’ve done a lot of work on my swing, getting it right technically, and maybe I neglected my putting a bit. I was just average on the greens and I’ve been working on getting the ball in the hole more.

“It took a bit of time to figure the greens out, and I don’t want to give the secret away, but then I could trust where the ball was going to go. I’ve played really well from tee-to-green lately and if I had made a few more 10-footers I would have won some trophies. But now that I’ve got used to my new swing and given time to that, being able to figure out my putting has helped a lot,” Viljoen, whose solitary Sunshine Tour win came three years ago at the Sun Fish River Challenge, said after his round.

Viljoen dropped just one shot on Wednesday, on the par-four eighth hole, his penultimate hole, and his nine birdies held at bay a group of four golfers on six-under-par – Jake Redman, the in-form Danie van Tonder, Neil Schietekat and rookie Paul Boshoff.

Jacques Blaauw and Coert Groenewald were on five-under-par 67 and waiting in the parlour to try and snatch the lead in Thursday’s penultimate round, with a large group of five golfers behind them on four-under – the exciting young Thriston Lawrence, veteran Keith Horne, Lyle Rowe, Dylan Mostert and current order of merit leader Darren Fichardt.

Whether Viljoen will let them in, however, remains to be seen because he is certainly hungry to win again and feels right at home at the 117-year-old ERPM Golf Club, an old-fashioned parklands course.

“I grew up playing a lot here for Ekurhuleni Juniors and it was great to get something going today. It’s quite a tight course so I wouldn’t say you feel so comfortable, but being able to hit the ball in the right places makes it easier. If you can control the ball well then you can get a nice score here. I told my caddy on the drive down from Bloemfontein that if you get on a roll here then you can shoot 63/64.

“After winning at Fish River, I went on a bit of a celebration spree, but then I woke up and I’ve got my act together. I really want to try and win again and this would be a good week to do it. It’s a course I can definitely go low on, but there’s a lot of golf still to be played,” Viljoen said.

So far Darren Fichardt’s daily gym work during Lockdown has paid off and now the 45-year-old order of merit leader is looking to sharpen up his short game as the Sunshine Tour’s Rise Up Series goes into its penultimate event, the Vodacom Championship Unlocked, at ERPM Golf Club in Boksburg from Wednesday.

Fichardt is on top of the order of merit after the first three tournaments thanks to his great consistency: after winning the Betway Championship at Killarney Country Club, the first tournament after Lockdown, he finished in a tie for sixth in the African Bank Championship at Glendower and then fourth in the Titleist Championship at Pretoria Country Club. That has given him earnings of R148 757.14, just over R2000 more than George Coetzee, who is not playing this week because he is campaigning – with great success – in Europe.

That leaves Danie van Tonder, on R120 650, as his chief challenger to win the Rise Up Series, but the likes of young Tristen Strydom and veterans Adilson da Silva, Ulrich van den Berg and Jaco Ahlers, all of whom have won more than R70 000, cannot be discounted either if they win in Boksburg.

“My golf has been pretty good so far, in the long Lockdown I was able to work on quite a few things I really wanted to, like getting fitter and stronger and that has paid off. Being on top of the order of merit, ahead of all the youngsters is exactly where you want to be, it’s always lekker. It’s also nice to have been able to play at home and sleep in my own bed for more than two weeks.

“It would mean a lot for me to win the order of merit, to win any of those is always awesome. To perform like I am, so consistently, is very satisfying. But I definitely need to sharpen up my putting and chipping, I’ve been working hard on that in this two-week break. I just feel I haven’t made enough putts and there have been soft bogeys when I have just missed the green but have not been able to get up-and-down,” Fichardt told The Citizen on Tuesday.

Although the 117-year-old ERPM Golf Club is one of South Africa’s top courses, Fichardt is yet to compete there as a professional, but he believes the eighth, ninth and 10^th holes will be key to the outcome of the event. A water hazard makes for an intimidating tee-shot on the eighth and the 396-metre ninth features a long carry over the same large body of water for the approach shot, while the 10^th is a short par-four of 342 yards and driveable as long as one is willing to take on the oak tree, as John Bland famously did in 1981 in scoring one of his remarkable 32 career holes-in-one.

“I’ve only played there as an amateur, never as a pro. It’s a pretty short course with really good greens. In the final round, those three holes around the turn could provide a big turnaround when you’re in the thick of things and in contention. But the fun of playing is back now for me and I’m really looking forward to teeing it up again,” Fichardt said.

Ken Payet’s face creased into a frown as the tournament director of the Nedbank Golf Challenge and Sun City’s Operations Manager for Sport and Recreation considered the impact cancelling this year’s event would have on the local community around the resort.

The 2020 Nedbank Golf Challenge, which was meant to be the 40^th anniversary of the event that began life as the Million Dollar, was cancelled at the end of last month due to all the uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic, and while Payet said the decision was made in time to avoid any serious financial losses for the tournament, his heart went out to the local economy which relies on one of the most lucrative events in world golf for much-needed income.

“Action was taken in time because deadlines were set for certain decisions to be made and only small costs were incurred, but really next to no money was lost. But if we had given the green light then and started with the infrastructure build for the event, millions of rand would have been wasted if the tournament did not then go ahead. The ability to travel was unknown and we still don’t know for sure about quarantine times both here and in Dubai where the Race to Dubai World Tour Championship Final is played the following week.

“But the impact will really be felt by the local community and you’ve got to feel for them because the tournament employs about 5000 people. So in future the Nedbank Golf Challenge will be looking to contribute to them through charities that raise funds, like Golf for Good on the European Tour. We will see what we can do to give back to them, make a difference in people’s lives, and we are already in talks about that,” Payet said at Sun City at the weekend.

While the uncertainty over travel restrictions – international travel will only resume on October 1 – obviously played a big role in the decision to cancel the event this year, it also just made business sense because crowds would not have been allowed to attend.

“Playing behind closed doors was not really an option because this is the biggest social event and is all about networking. For the sponsors to get a return on their investment, they want to entertain existing clients and network with possible clients. For them it’s not just about branding and our sponsors are an integral part of the Sun City family.

“Our sponsors have also had a lot of retrenchments, so spending a whole lot of money sponsoring a golf tournament would not have sent a good message. There’s such uncertainty, even now we could still go back to Lockdown Level III and there is still a reluctance to travel. The infection rate just has to rise and all that money spent is thrown down the drain. We just would not have been able to put on the event we know and love,” Payet said.