Branden Grace attributed his success to having a feeling of calm on the course as he fired a seven-under-par 66 to storm into the lead after the second round of the Volvo Golf Champions at the Fancourt Links on Friday.

Grace reached the halfway stage on 12-under-par overall, four strokes ahead of Briton Lee Slattery and South African Thomas Aiken. The 23-year-old won the Joburg Open last week and is currently leading the Race to Dubai.

“I have a real calm out there which is a big relief. It’s great to keep the nerves down and just go out there and play golf. I’ve changed my routines a bit, I’m taking my time, sticking to what club I’m going to hit and keeping things as simple as possible. I’m just sticking to my game plan and minding my own business,” Grace told a news conference after his round.

Slattery produced the round of the day – an eight-under-par 65 – to join Aiken in a tie for second on eight-under, with Europe Ryder Cup captain Jose-Maria Olazabal alone in fourth-place on seven-under-par.

Nicolas Colsaerts, Louis Oosthuizen, Raphael Jacquelin, Hennie Otto, Paul Lawrie, Alexander Noren and Retief Goosen have all completed two rounds in 140 strokes, six-under-par.

Overnight leader Colsaerts, who shot a course-record 64 in the first round, came undone on the front nine, reaching the turn in four-over-par 40, but the Belgian got three birdies on the back nine to compensate for two more bogeys.

The 33-year-old Slattery birdied the first two holes to give himself the ideal start and then claimed three successive birdies from the fifth hole to maintain the momentum. The Englishman drained a 25-foot downhill birdie putt on the par-four 10th hole to make up for a bogey on the par-five ninth, and then collected four more birdies on the back nine, while dropping just the single shot, on the par-three 11th.

“It was just one of them rounds I’m going to remember for the rest of my life and hopefully it can kickstart something for me. I think it’s probably the best round of my career, with it being such a big event, with so many great players and playing with Retief Goosen,” Slattery said.

“I decided to play the course a bit more aggressively and hit a lot more drivers off the tees. I putted well and just took on a few more shots out there.”

Only winners of European Tour events in the previous year, plus active golfers who are under the age of 50 and have at least 10 career wins, are invited to the two million euro event, which pays out 350,000 euro to the winner.

The Southern Cape is home turf for Branden Grace and he made it count with a fine five-under-par 68 in the opening round of the Volvo Golf Champions at the Fancourt Links on Thursday.

“I’m feeling good, feeling great, it’s nice to play at Fancourt in front of a home crowd and I’m hitting the ball well,” a content Grace said after his round, which left him in a tie for second, four shots behind Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts.

Grace and Thomas Aiken are the leading South Africans after the first round, with Grace enjoying a purple patch after he finished in a tie for 14th at the Africa Open and then claimed the honours in last week’s Joburg Open.

It was the 23-year-old’s first European Tour victory, but Grace has not allowed the good fortune to go to his head or disturb his focus.

“I don’t think the win has settled in so far, I haven’t really had time to sit back and think about it or what happens in the next couple of weeks. But my concentration is still there, although I am a bit tired. I’m on a roll and I just need to keep my head down and run with it,” Grace said.

The George Golf Club representative obviously knows nearby Fancourt extremely well and he admitted that he never thought he’d be as many as four shots behind after shooting a 68.

“You don’t really expect to be four behind after shooting a 68. That’s one helluva score Colsaerts shot and it will be nice to see how he follows up. But he hits it a mile, which definitely helps around here. He’ll be getting close to a lot of the greens and then if he holes some putts, he can come off with that sort of score. It’s nice to know that sort of score is out there,” Grace said.

Life has changed immensely for Grace thanks to his Joburg Open triumph and his mere presence in this elite 35-man field is one of the benefits. He had the privilege of playing with Ryder Cup captain and two-time Masters champion Jose-Maria Olazabal on Thursday.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it, he’s one of my role-models. He’s a great gentleman and you can just see by the way he conducts himself on the course that he is all-class. He’s the Ryder Cup captain for a reason.

“He cracked the odd joke, he told me when I did something good, a good swing, good shot. It was awesome playing with him and nice to get off to a good start playing with somebody like that,” Grace said.

The former Fancourt Foundation member began with a birdie on the first hole, but the putter then misbehaved on the par-four third and fourth holes, leading to successive bogeys. But the highlight of his round came on the 568-yard ninth hole, which he eagled.

“I hit my drive over the trap and had 257 yards to the green. The green is really hard to hit and you’ve got to miss it in the right place. I hit a great three-wood and missed it right, from where I chipped in.”

Grace admitted that the eagle had “jump-started” his round and he birdied the next two holes as he cruised through the back nine in four-under-par 33.

Branden Grace’s impressive victory in the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Sunday made it a wonderful fortnight for former members of the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation.

Former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen won last weekend’s Africa Open in East London, but Grace’s one-shot triumph in Johannesburg was a breakthrough victory for one of South Africa’s most talented youngsters.

Els himself was impressed.

“I’m very proud of him. It’s been an outstanding year for the foundation – last week it was Louis winning and now Branden. I couldn’t have asked for more.

“It’s great to see former members doing so well and their performances will definitely motivate the current members of the foundation,” Els said from his Herold’s Bay holiday home.

The victory will turn Grace from a bright South African prospect into an up-and-coming star of the European Tour, something that the 23-year-old has threatened to do for some time.

Grace’s last foray into Europe – in 2009 – left him rather battered and bruised but, after regaining his card at Q-School last month, he can now kick back and enjoy an exemption until the end of 2013.

“It’s awesome, after just getting my card now I have this exemption. The win is going to get me into a lot of events I never thought I’d be playing in,” Grace said after his maiden European Tour win.

What made Grace’s win even more impressive was that he achieved it by finishing with nine straight pars – pointing to a level head while all the other frontrunners were scrambling around like victims of an anthrax attack.

The other two members of his three-ball – George Coetsee and Richard Finch – crashed to rounds of 75 and 78 respectively.

“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace said. “I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances.”

While Finch struggled on the greens and allowed it to be his funeral (he three-putted three times on the front nine), Grace did not let an uncooperative putter get to him.

“The opportunities were there, but I struggled to get the speed and line together. The greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away. I went out there today thinking the greens would be quicker, but as soon as you really want to make a putt, you hit it a bit too hard and it goes four feet past. The next one you lag a bit and it ends four feet short.

“But a big thanks to Zack [Rasego, his caddy], who told me I hadn’t hit a bad putt all day and eventually my pace came good,” Grace said.

There was an atmosphere of nervous tension at the start as Grace teed off with Coetzee and Finch just three shots behind, but the George-based golfer said he felt good, even at the turn when Jamie Elson eagled his 18th hole to close to within a shot of Grace.

“I actually thought I’d be more nervous. I didn’t really look at the leaderboard because I knew it would be up to my performance. I stuck to my game plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot,” Grace said.

Grace will now be playing in the lucrative, winners’-only Volvo Golf Champions event close to home at Fancourt starting on Thursday and is looking forward to making more of an impact in Europe now that he is older and wiser.

“It’s an unbelievable, amazing feeling, the win has been coming a long time and I really wanted to play in the Volvo.

“The last time I played in Europe, I wasn’t ready. My golf was good, but it wasn’t great. But I’ve grown so much in the last couple of years and taking a couple of steps back was maybe the best thing to happen to me,” Grace said.

South African Branden Grace played with admirable calm to win his first European Tour title when he won the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club by one stroke with a final round of level-par 72.
Grace, playing his 50th European Tour event, finished on 17-under-par, one stroke ahead of Briton Jamie Elson, who catapulted himself into second place with an outstanding nine-under-par 63.
The 23-year-old Grace began the final round with a three-stroke lead over compatriot George Coetzee and Briton Richard Finch. They were all playing in the final three-ball after weather delays on the first three days of the 1.3 million euro co-sanctioned event.
But Finch crashed to a six-over-par 78, three-putting three times on the front nine, to end nine shots off the pace.
Coetzee closed to within two shots of the lead with birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes, but the burly South African faded on the back nine after a double-bogey on the par-four 13th when he hooked his approach shot into the water. The world number 80 finished with a 75 to close on 11-under-par in a tie for 14th.
Grace, a former member of the Ernie Els Foundation, put together nine straight pars on the back nine to hold off Elson and six golfers who finished in a tie for third on 14-under – Scots David Drysdale and Marc Warren, and South Africans Jaco van Zyl, Trevor Fisher junior, Dawie van der Walt and Michiel Bothma, his cousin.
The pressure of leading seemed to affect Grace at the start of the final round as he bogeyed the par-three second hole. But a wonderful approach shot to within eight feet on the 389-metre par-four ninth hole set up a birdie that seemed to settle the former South African amateur strokeplay champion.
“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I stuck to my game-plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace told reporters after his triumph, which earned him 206 050 euro.
Grace’s back nine was the epitome of solid golf under pressure as he made no mistakes off the tee and was superb with his irons. The margin of victory would have been greater if Grace had not narrowly missed a number of birdie putts.
“The opportunities were there, but I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances. I struggled to get the lines exactly right, the greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away.
“Obviously it’s awesome to win, it’s been coming a long time and it’s really nice to have the first win back home. The hard work has paid off and my consistency has paid off,” Grace, who earlier this week won the Gary Player Trophy for best stroke average on the Sunshine Tour, said.