Ken Borland

Cape Town – Scotland’s Kylie Henry will be the frontrunner in the final round of the Standard Bank Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club, after she posted a three-under-par 71 on Thursday to stretch her lead to three shots ahead of the last day on Friday.

The 37-year-old is on eight-under-par overall after two rounds on the par-74, 5738 metre Royal Cape layout. Henry came from two strokes back to win the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt a month ago, but her previous Ladies European Tour victory came at the 2014 German Open when she led after the second and third rounds, her three straight 64s giving her record tallies for 36 and 54 holes on that tour.

A pair of South Africans are once again Investec Order of Merit leader Henry’s closest challengers, but now it is Casandra Alexander and Gabrielle Venter, who both shot 69s on Thursday to move to five-under-par.

Shawnelle de Lange (71) and Lora Assad (72) were second and third after the first round, but De Lange shot 77 in the second round to slip back to level-par, and Assad made 78 to slide to two-over.

SuperSport Ladies Challenge winner Tvesa Malik is on four-under-par in a tie for fourth with France’s Emie Peronnin and Englishwoman Florentyna Parker. They all shot three-under 71s on Thursday.

De Lange initially kept in contact with Henry, but then a seven on the par-five 16^th and a bogey on the par-four 17^th saw her fall away.

Henry battled a bit to find her best game on the front nine, going out in level-par as she dropped shots on the first, seventh and eighth holes. But she also made back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes, and then again on nine and 10. The two-time Ladies European Tour winner’s beautiful ball-striking then enabled her to birdie the par-five 14^th and 16^th holes, as well as the par-three 16^th for her to pull a little clear of the chasing pack.

While the capricious Cape winds toyed with most of the field, only nine golfers shooting under the par mark of 74, Kylie Henry flourished, posting a five-under-par 69 to lead after the first round of the Standard Bank Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club on Wednesday.

Coming from Scotland, Henry ought to be comfortable in the wind, and it showed in a top-class round that featured an eagle on her second hole, the par-five 11^th, followed by four birdies and just a single bogey.

The winner of the opening event in this year’s Sunshine Ladies Tour, the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt, also in the Western Cape, went out from the 10^th and reached the clubhouse in four-under, before coming home in one-under as the wind became stronger on her back nine.

“It was pretty windy today, but it does that here and I’ve had quite a lot of experience in the wind, most of the time I manage to judge it well. I do enjoy these good, strong courses. Royal Cape is a great layout and in really good condition, and Fancourt was amazing, a brilliant test.

“Some holes were really quite tough today, with crosswinds or the wind into you, but I played really good golf. I gave myself lots of birdie chances because my iron play was really solid, and then my putting was the best part of my game. It’s quite a tight course, so I drove the ball well too.

“Both nines are similar, but the wind just got stronger when I was on the front nine, so the back nine was slightly easier for me and I hit a lot of good shots,” Henry said.

South Africans Shawnelle de Lange (71) and Lora Assad (72) are Henry’s closest challengers, while compatriot Kiera Floyd is one of the six golfers who posted one-under-par 73.

Like a flower opening up its corolla to show the beauty within, this Sunshine Ladies Tour season has really seen Floyd unveil her huge talent. The 19-year-old finished tied-fourth in last week’s Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge at Blue Valley, she was in contention after the first round of the SuperSport Ladies Challenge at Sun City, and she was tied-second going into the final round at Fancourt.

De Lange dropped only one shot, on the par-four 10^th, but finished superbly with three birdies in the last four holes.

Assad began her round on the 10^th and immediately dropped a shot, but she fought back brilliantly with birdies on the 13^th, 14^th, 16^th and 18^th holes. The 31-year-old suffered a couple of bogeys on the front nine, but finished well with a birdie to post two-under.

Floyd began a rollercoaster round on the 10^th with a bogey, but reached the turn in two-under, before making one birdies and two bogeys coming home.

Frenchwomen Emie Peronnin and Ariane Klotz, Norway’s Maiken Bing Paulsen, Florentyna Parker of England and India’s Tvesa Malik, winner of the SuperSport Ladies Challenge, are the other golfers on one-under-par.

The Sunshine Ladies Tour returns to the Western Cape this week with the Standard Bank Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club and stalwart Stacy Bregman is eager to continue the steady improvement she has shown this season and mount a strong defence of her title.

Bregman claimed her sixth Sunshine Ladies Tour title in April last year when she won the tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s West Course, beating Lee-Anne Pace in a playoff. She began this year’s campaign by missing the cut in the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt, but then finished tied-38^th in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge at Lost City and then tied-19^th in last week’s Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge at Blue Valley Golf Estate, where she was in contention for the title before shooting 75 in the final round.

The 37-year-old Bregman says her game is really starting to come together.

“I do feel like I’m starting to find the keys to my game again, even though I wasn’t playing that well at first. But I’ve felt it coming together and my results have been getting better and better,” Bregman said.

“I’m in a good space, my game is trending in the right direction and I’m feeling good. I’ve been putting really well this year, but I could be a bit better off the tees.

“And you’ve got to be good off the tees at Royal Cape, because it’s quite tight and old-school. It’s about positioning yourself and putting well, but it gets really tricky, especially if there are winds, if you’re not in the right positions,” Bregman said.

Royal Cape is the oldest golf course in South Africa and much restoration work has been done in recent years with the original design of Charles Murray and the indigenous landscape at front of mind. The course is built on sandy fynbos plains, but hectares of the endemic Cape Flats vegetation has been lost to the pressures of urbanisation, so Royal Cape have embarked on a program of bolstering the endangered locally-adapted flora.

Although relatively flat, Royal Cape is a challenging course that has 58 bunkers and six holes that feature water. The parklands layout, with Table Mountain looming over it, is exposed to the famous Cape Doctor, the south-easterly wind which is a near-constant obstacle when it comes to finding the tree-lined fairways. It has hosted the South African Open for men 10 times.

The Sunshine Ladies Tour has seen strong competition this season with three different winners thus far – Kylie Henry, Tvesa Malik and Helen Kreuzer – and all three of them are in the field again this week.

The trio come from Scotland, India and Germany respectively, showing the greater interest from overseas that the tour is generating. But South Africa also has some amazing talents to keep an eye on and Kiera Floyd, Gabrielle Venter, Nicole Garcia, Cara Gorlei, Tandi McCallum, Nadia van der Westhuizen and Bregman herself are all capable of winning the R600 000 Standard Bank Ladies Open.

Following on from the CSA 4-Day Series triumph, the DP World Lions’ bucket was overflowing with more success over the weekend as both the men’s and ladies teams won both of their matches for a perfect 4/4 record.

The DP World Lions men’s team began their CSA T20 Challenge campaign with convincing victories over the GBets Rocks at home and against the Auto Investments North-West Dragons in Potchefstroom.

The nine-wicket win over the Dragons earned them a bonus point, while they were one run away from also earning the fifth log point when they hammered the Rocks by 44 runs at the DP World Wanderers Stadium.

The DP World Lions ladies thrashed the Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers by eight wickets with 22 overs to spare in their one-day match, and then won a thrilling T20 match against the same South-Western Districts side by just two runs.

Proteas star Ayabonga Khaka was the Queen of the DP World Wanderers as she took three for 10 in seven overs in the 50-over encounter and then claimed four wickets in a matchwinning burst in the T20 clash.

Our #PrideOfJozi were only defending a total of 114 for five and SWD were cruising at 84 for two after 14 overs when Khaka, who has played 154 matches for the Proteas across formats, returned to the attack. She left the visitors feeling like they had been a victim of a robbery as the 31-year-old sent them crashing from 84 for two to 107 for six, all with great skill.

With fellow Protea Tumi Sekhukhune (4-0-25-1) also bowling superbly at the other end, the Badgers ended with 112 for seven. Left-arm seamer Relebohile Mkhize also struck two vital blows up front after SWD had made a blazing start, removing both openers, Tabitha la Grange and in-form Proteas star Tazmin Brits, ending with phenomenal figures of two for seven in her four overs.

The DP World Lions had been sent in to bat and their total of 114 for five was built around solid top-order contributions rather than anyone really filling their boots – Madison Landsman (30), Kirstie Thomson (23), Diara Ramlakan (26) and Sinalo Jafta (31 not out) all chipped in well.

In the 50-over match, the tale of the tape was totally one-sided as the Badgers could not measure up against a daunting DP World Lions attack. Key batter Brits was bowled first ball by a tremendous delivery from Khaka and the rest of the line-up tapped around a bit as they could only muster 121 before being bowled out.

Khaka (7-2-10-3) led the way, but captain and spinner Kgomotso Rapoo was a real threat in the middle overs with two for 24 in nine overs and seamers Lehlohonolo Meso (6-2-18-1) and Sekhukhune (7-1-20-1) kept the pressure tight.

A high-energy run-chase then saw the DP World Lions chase down the target in just 28 overs, Sunette Viljoen-Louw scoring an electrifying run-a-ball 46 not out, while Nonkululeko Thabethe (33) and Thomson (24 not out) provided industrious support.

The DP World Lions men’s team look well set to take on the big fish in Division One after they saw off the challenges of the Rocks and Dragons with impressive ease, taking a healthy haul of nine log points into Wednesday’s match against the HollywoodBets Dolphins at Kingsmead.

Having been sent in to bat by the Rocks, our Pride moved swiftly and efficiently to a record-breaking 223 for five in their 20 overs – the franchise’s highest ever total and the highest in domestic cricket at the DP World Wanderers Stadium.

Ryan Rickelton’s 75 off just 39 balls was a special innings and Rassie van der Dussen then provided the big finish as he raced to 42 not out off only 22 deliveries. It was a well-balanced batting effort though with Reeza Hendricks (28 off 18), Temba Bavuma (26 off 16) and Wiaan Mulder (22 off 11) all batting with good intent.

The Bolanders were caught on the hop by Evan Jones (4-0-34-2) coming on first change and he struck twice in his first over, while left-arm spinner and captain Bjorn Fortuin (4-0-21-2) inevitably lured a couple of batsmen to their destruction.

But the bowling effort of the night belonged to Kwena Maphaka, making his T20 debut for the Pride. The 17-year-old understandably left the field beaming after he finished with an outstanding three for 22 in his four overs, looking every bit a class bowler of premium talent with his quality left-arm seam.

The match against North-West in Potchefstroom was even more one-sided as the #PrideOfJozi’s attack scythed through the Dragons batting line-up, bowling them out for just 103. Spinner Junaid Dawood had his moment to shine as he took two wickets in his first over and ended with three for 23 in four, while Maphaka again showed he is comfortable at this level with two for 11 in three overs up front with the new ball, and Fortuin again excelled with two for 14 in three overs.

Hendricks then mowed 57 not out off 30 balls to rush the Lions to victory in 10.4 overs, putting on 76 for the first wicket for the second match in succession with Rickelton (34 off 26).