Ken Borland

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The third round of the FBC Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare Golf Club will not be fondly recalled by Luca Filippi, but the good news for the 23-year-old is that he still leads going into Sunday’s final round despite his 74 on Saturday.

That lead is a tenuous one, however, with Wynand Dingle firing an excellent four-under-par 68 to climb within one shot of Filippi, who is on nine-under-par overall.

Things looked to be progressing smoothly for Filippi, who took a five-shot lead into the weekend, as he birdied three successive holes in the middle of the front nine. But a bogey at the par-four eighth started the trouble and a double-bogey six at the 10^th hole was a bitter blow.

The Milnerton Golf Club representative did manage to collect a couple of birdies on the back nine, but a bogey, double-bogey finish put the seal on a tough afternoon at the office.

“It felt like a very long day and it was tough going out at 12.30pm in the swirling wind,” Filippi admitted. “So three-under through six holes was a great start.

“But then the double on 10 set me back, and I unfortunately had two bad holes to end too. But I thought I hung in nicely on the back nine.

“It was a nice start in conditions that were not easy and I thought I was building a nice lead, but golf thought otherwise and instead I just have a one-shot lead,” Filippi said philosophically.

It is only a one-shot lead thanks to Dingle, who is also seeking his first Sunshine Tour win, finishing birdie-birdie. And it is not only the 37-year-old that Filippi has to worry about, with the vastly-experienced Jaco Ahlers (71) and Louis de Jager (72) both on six-under, while the in-form Louis Albertse (72) and Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya (72) are both one further stroke back.

But Filippi has a good head on his young shoulders and it’s not only about winning his maiden Sunshine Tour title in the final round for him; whatever happens, he sees it as another learning experience in an exciting professional career that was only launched a couple of years ago.

“The FBC Zimbabwe Open is a massive event, one of the bigger tournaments on the Sunshine Tour, and I’ve never had a one-shot lead going into the final day of a four-round event before.

“But regardless of the outcome, I would have learnt a lot after tomorrow’s round and I look forward to see what the day has in store for me,” Filippi said.

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Just about every golfer chats about bringing an aggressive approach to the course, but it doesn’t always translate into reality or a low score. But it did for 23-year-old Luca Filippi on Friday in the second round of the FBC Zimbabwe Open as he fired a superb seven-under-par 65 at Chapman Golf Club to claim a five-shot lead heading into the weekend.

Filippi, who began the day in a tie for fifth after shooting 68 at Royal Harare Golf Club on the first day, was just one-under-par through nine holes on Friday, but he knew he was playing well and stuck at it. Even missing a short birdie putt on the 10^th did not derail him and he then exploded into action with successive birdies on the 11^th and 12^th holes, an eagle on the par-five 14^th, and further birdies on 16 and 18.

“I played nicely from the start, even though I was only one-under on the front nine,” Filippi said. “I had some nice opportunities for birdie and then missed a short one on 10, but it was great to then start making putts. I was especially happy about my eagle on 14 because I had only played the par-fives in level-par on the front.

“I wanted to be aggressive and on both courses they’re using for the tournament you’ve got to hit your Driver very well. If you position yourself well off the tee then there are lots of birdies out there.

“I was doing that well today, although the putting was a little tricky at Chapman, the greens aren’t rolling quite as pure as at Royal Harare. But I knew there was definitely a low score out here.

“I will keep my game-plan pretty much the same over the weekend, shooting four-under at Royal Harare on the first day was a good start. I need to keep being aggressive, I can’t afford to sit back and relax. I need to keep my foot on the pedal, be aggressive off the tee and give my putts a chance,” Filippi said.

The Milnerton Golf Club representative, who is on 11-under-par at the halfway stage, will need to keep an eye on second-placed Louis de Jager (-6), who it must always be remembered did the South African Amateur Championship double in 2007, has won five times on the Sunshine Tour and competed in over 100 DP World Tour events.

All that experience has come to the fore in solid back-to-back rounds of 69 by De Jager, while in-form first-round leader Louis Albertse is with a group of five golfers at five-under-par after shooting 74 at Chapman GC.

Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya kept himself in the top-three with a level-par 72 on the same course, while veteran Jaco Ahlers shot a 69 at Royal Harare to also go five-under for the tournament. Albert Venter and American Dan Erickson are the other golfers on that mark.

As a professional rugby player, whether the Springbok captain like Siya Kolisi or a 23-year-old still making their way in the game, you are going to have your character tested by the vagaries of the sport.

The shifting fortunes of the teams in the United Rugby Championship have illustrated this perfectly. The Bulls, who had the pressure of expectation on them having dominated the local scene for the last couple of seasons, had to come through the toughest of starts in Europe and are only now inching their way off the bottom of the log.

The Sharks, meanwhile, looked the form South African team last year, culminating in their impressive dismantling of the Bulls in Durban in December. But since then they have been held to a draw and then beaten by the Stormers, who have now overtaken them at the top of the local shield competition.

And now the Bulls and the Sharks will clash in Pretoria on Saturday, a key local derby which Bulls coach Jake White described as being like a final.

“You’re going to have your character tested at certain times but the Sharks are still a great team,” Ruan Nortje, the highly promising young Bulls lock, said on Monday at Loftus Versfeld.

“They have lots of experience, Springboks all over their team. I’m sure they will be playing good rugby on Saturday and it’s important for us to also be ready.

“I don’t think last weekend’s result will affect the Sharks in any way. I’m sure they will be ready to bounce back.

“We’ll take confidence from the points we’ve gained in the last two games against the Lions, but it was not a perfect performance by us last weekend, we struggled in many aspects. There are lots of areas we need to grow, basic errors cost us,” Nortje said.

The Lions, Stormers and Sharks have all put the Bulls under pressure at scrum time recently and Nortje acknowledged that getting the better of Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Thomas du Toit is going to be a major challenge and the Bulls need to improve drastically in that set-piece.

“We’ve been under a bit of pressure at scrum-time lately, we’ve had some injuries. But the work coaches Russell Winter and Werner Kruger are putting in will help a lot in the long-term.

“It’s been better the last couple of weeks, but we are not where we want to be yet. We’re up against an all-Springbok front row – what a challenge for us!

“We will just focus on our processes and it will be great to test ourselves against a quality side like the Sharks. Last time we struggled against them in the scrums, which gave them a lot of opportunities to get into our 22 and convert that into points.

“So a massive step-up is needed by us at the scrums, and also at the breakdown, where we struggled as well,” Nortje said.

JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng (24 October) – It took the near-perfect round for Luke Brown to win the Blair Atholl Championship delivered by The Courier Guy on Sunday and the 23-year-old duly produced a bogey-free 67 to claim his first Sunshine Tour title.

Two shots off the lead and having never won on the main tour before, Brown also had to conquer one of the longest courses in the world and multiple winners like Ulrich van den Berg, Trevor Fisher Junior and Neil Schietekat.

And a blustery, shifting wind was an added challenge.

But Brown showed remarkable composure and tremendous skill as he compiled one of the few bogey-free rounds all week and collected five birdies as well to finish on 12-under-par.

“They say your first one is the hardest to win and it was definitely very difficult today, but that was one of the best rounds of my life. It was breezy and difficult to choose the right club for these pin positions. But my ball-striking was amazing today, I hit all 18 greens in regulation, which is wonderful on the third longest course in the world.

“My putting was also solid and if you keep the bogeys off your card on an amazing course like this, then you’re going to be tough to beat. I definitely had to stay patient, you might feel like you should be making more birdies, but it’s not that easy on this course. I tried not to look at what the others were doing,” Brown said.

The leading three-ball of Trevor Fisher Junior, Ulrich van den Berg and Louis Albertse all birdied the par-five first hole, but they were then jerked back to reality as the rest of the final round became a struggle.

A double-bogey on the par-five seventh was a fatal blow for overnight leader Albertse, while Van den Berg double-bogeyed the par-four 12^th and dropped four more shots coming home in 43. Fisher Junior had three successive bogeys on the treacherous stretch of long par-fours from 14 to 16 and closed with a double-bogey 7 at the 18^th.

Schietekat was moving in the other direction, however, and birdies on the last two holes gave him a 67 and the clubhouse lead on 10-under-par.

Keagan Thomas fired a 69 to finish third on nine-under, while Anton Haig and Albertse tied for fourth on eight-under.

Thriston Lawrence shot a remarkable 64 to catapult into sixth place on seven-under.

But it was Johannesburg-based Brown who ended a popular winner by two strokes, having learnt the harsh lessons from the KitKat Championship at the start of the season when he squandered a five-shot lead in the final round.

“I was thinking about the KitKat Championship on the 17^th and I always wanted to get back into that position. The leaderboard swings up and down and it’s difficult to keep track of, so I’d rather not worry about that. From that experience I learnt to be more patient because I felt I should have won that one.

“I felt my game was close to getting back to that level in the last month, but I just focused on getting on the green and giving myself a chance at least. It shows how tough the Sunshine Tour is that it’s taken me so long to win when I’ve been playing well,” Brown said.

Scores – https://sunshinetour.com/report/?tourn=BACH&season=221S&report=tmdraw~season=221S~round=1~#/home