Ken Borland

Danie van Tonder felt becalmed through the first four holes of the final round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Friday, but he showed his ever-growing maturity as he held his round together and posted a bogey-free 68 to win the Sunshine Tour’s second Rise Up Series event by three strokes.

Van Tonder started the final day tied for the lead with in-form Martin Rohwer and rising star Jayden Schaper, but they fell away and his greatest challenge came from the experienced Neil Schietekat, who birdied three holes in succession from the second to briefly move into a one-shot lead on eight-under-par.

The 29-year-old Van Tonder, from The Els Club Copperleaf, even had to contend with hitting into the water on the par-five second hole. He managed to scramble his way up-and-down for a par and his patience started paying off once he birdied the par-four fifth.

He gained another shot on the seventh and birdies on the two par-fives on the back nine saw him saunter to victory as Schietekat (69) finished on eight-under, tied for second along with Adilson da Silva (67) and George Coetzee (68).

“I had to be patient because I made a slow start and hit it in the water on the second but managed to get up-and-down for par. But sometimes it’s just your week, to be honest I felt I played good golf the whole week, I was consistent and I was confident in my game. I kept the same aggression as the first two rounds but just made sure I missed in the right place.

“If you hit the ball well and putt well then this is the sort of course you will do well on, if you hit it straight then the course will give you a few birdies because the greens are so quick and true. And it feels special because of putting in all the hard work during Lockdown, getting those callouses back on my hands, gyming and training hard,” Van Tonder said after his fourth Sunshine Tour triumph.

Veteran Da Silva produced some marvellous golf to climb into a share of second, birdieing the 16^th and 18^th holes, both par-fours, to post a 67, joint best round of the day with Tristen Strydom, who lifted himself into a tie for 13^th.

The 19-year-old Schaper endured a chastening day as he went after his first professional title, slumping to a three-over-par 75 to finish in a share of sixth along with Rohwer. Schaper started bogey-bogey and this marvellous prospect will have learnt much from being in the final group. Deon Germishuys (68), Luke Brown (69), Louis Albertse (72), Darren Fichardt (73) and Jaco Ahlers (74) were the other golfers to finish tied for sixth on four-under, while Dylan Mostert was alone in fifth after an excellent 68 lifted him to six-under.

A trio of exciting talents topped the leaderboard after the second round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday, with Jayden Schaper, Danie van Tonder and Martin Rohwer all tied on seven-under-par as the second event in the Rise Up Series heads into the final round on Friday.

Jaco Ahlers is obviously also very much in contention after he fired the round of the day, a four-under-par 68, to climb into fourth place on six-under, just one stroke behind. And the experience and skills of Darren Fichardt (-5), the winner last week at Killarney, Neil Schietekat (-5), Jake Roos (-4) and George Coetzee (-4) also cannot be discounted.

The combination of a top-class course with slick winter greens and the vagaries of a blustery wind made for a particularly tough test in Edenvale on Thursday, and overnight leader Rohwer could only follow up his brilliant 65 on the first day with a level-par 72. That allowed Van Tonder and Schaper, who both shot two-under 70s, to catch him.

“It got tough out there with the wind blowing at about 30km/h and the greens are slick too. You’ve got to pick your lines carefully and not always go for the flags otherwise you open yourself up for three-putts. It’s about hitting fairways and greens, you’ve got to stick with your selection of club, hit it as hard as you can and just hope it goes on. With the gusts you’ve got to time it correctly,” Van Tonder said after roaring out of the blocks with four birdies on the front nine but then coming home in 38.

Rohwer regained the lead with an eagle at the par-five 15^th, but then three-putted the last to slip back to seven-under. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old from Kloof Country Club was pleased with a day of solid ball-striking.

“I was really solid today from tee-to-green, I felt like I had control of the ball all through the round, but I just struggled on the greens. That three-putt on the last leaves a sour taste, but to be level-par with the conditions we were playing in, that’s not too bad. You were just not sure what the wind was doing so it was difficult to hit your numbers,” Rohwer said.

The winner of the Royal Swazi Open last year says he is up to the challenge posed by both the conditions and the likes of playing partner Van Tonder, who was on the charge early on in the second round.

“Sometimes you just have to play more conservatively, but there is still a fair share of opportunity out there. The wind is mostly across though and, with where the pins are located, it’s difficult to get close. It’s supposed to be windy again tomorrow, but I look forward to a third round in a row with Danie. I knew I was playing well today so I wasn’t too concerned about falling behind,” Rohwer said.

The 19-year-old Schaper showed enormous maturity as he held his round together after an up-and-down start in which he had two bogeys, a birdie and an eagle in the first five holes, before dropping successive shots around the turn.

“There was a lot more wind today, so it was a bit tougher, and the pins were all tucked in on the front nine, so I didn’t make a good start. I only hit three fairways in my first 12 holes and made a couple of three-putts, so I really put myself under pressure. But the back nine is much more accessible, I pulled myself together and finished well,” Schaper said.

But the hulking figure of Ahlers, who has won nine times on the Sunshine Tour, looms large, especially with the way he simply overpowered the par-fives on Thursday, collecting eagles on both the eighth and 15^th holes, and birdieing the 13^th.

Killarney Country Club once again put the Sunshine Tour’s top pros through the mill on Thursday, with only four golfers able to enjoy the comfort of being under par after the second round of the Betway Championship, the opening event of the Rise Up Series that marks the return to action after the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Top of the pile was Sunshine Tour veteran Alex Haindl, who shot a marvellous 67 on Thursday to go into the final round on three-under-par, one stroke ahead of another stalwart in Anton Haig. Two other very experienced campaigners in Ulrich van den Berg and Adilson da Silva are the other golfers under par, after they both finished on one-under after shooting 69s.

Although conditions were warmer and there was just a comfortable breeze blowing, the 103-man field once again struggled with the hard and fast greens, putting a premium on accuracy off the tee on the tight, tree-lined layout.

Haindl, rebuilding his career after a couple of back surgeries, was relieved to be playing well in his 20^th season on the Sunshine Tour.

“It’s just nice to be playing again, you don’t know where you game is when you’re just practising at home because you’re not under the gun and you can’t see where your game needs to be better. Since my last surgery last year it just felt like I couldn’t get going, I wasn’t moving the way I like, but today was a bit better. The game was a bit neater today, I kept it together better.

“My short game was a bit sharper today as I got more used to the dry fairways and firm greens. I was just trying to miss in the right places and made a couple of good saves. Luckily I wasn’t playing too early in the morning, although it was a bit windy. But as the weather heats up, the ball flies further almost immediately – it’s like one shot suddenly goes 6-7 metres further,” Haindl said after his round which included just a solitary dropped shot at the par-three 17^th.

The youngsters that are used to bombing the ball miles off the tee seem to be losing this particular arms race, given the veterans in the top four, but there are still some fresh faces very much in contention to claim the first Sunshine Tour title on offer since Lockdown.

Rookie Ruan Korb is just three strokes back on level-par, while former amateur sensation Jayden Schaper showed once again that he has the mettle, even though he is still in his teens, to mix it with the men as he lay in a threatening position just four strokes back after solid rounds of 73 and 68.

Keith Horne is with him on one-over-par and he clearly has all the weapons to win on Friday, having claimed nine Sunshine Tour titles. First-round leader Dylan Mostert slipped back into a tie for ninth after a 75 on Thursday, but he is just five shots adrift of the lead.

Haindl said patience and accuracy off the tee would be key attributes to win on Friday.

“The par-fives are quite important but it’s very difficult to stop your second shot on the green, so there are no gimmies. If you drive decently then you can have a lot of wedges coming in, so if you’re swinging okay then you can give yourself a few chances. But it’s very tough, you need to stay patient and accept the outcome if you’ve done your best, if you had a good yardage and a good swing.

“My game-plan was pretty decent, I kept it in play most of the time and gave myself chances. In order to win tomorrow, I just have to play better than the other guys!” Haindl said.

The International Cricket Council have announced a new system for deciding which teams will go to the World Cup, instituting the ODI Super League, and South Africa have drawn the short straw because they will have to play six of their top-eight colleagues in their bid to qualify for the 2023 event in India.

The ODI Super League begins on Thursday when England take on Ireland in the first of three ODIs, and features 13 teams vying for seven automatic qualification spots, along with hosts India. The bottom five teams will have to go to the World Cup qualifiers with five other Associate nations and battle it out for the last two World Cup places.

Teams will play eight series each, four at home and four away, earning points for each ODI won, with each series offering a set number of points as in the World Test Championship.

The only ‘minnows’ that the Proteas will go head-to-head against are Ireland and the Netherlands; while the only top eight team that South Africa will avoid is New Zealand.

Because of the difficulties of fitting this new pathway to the World Cup into the existing Future Tours Programme (FTP), teams do not play every other country and Pakistan and Bangladesh seem to be most favoured by the draw.

They avoid playing each other, while Pakistan also miss out on taking on India and Sri Lanka but will play Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and the Netherlands.

Bangladesh, apart from not meeting Pakistan, also miss Australia and India, while playing Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland.

The World Test Championship also does not feature every team playing everybody else and apparently the ICC tried to balance out those discrepancies with the ODI Super League draw.

“The ODI Super League format was devised some time ago, maybe three or four years ago when the rankings would have been different. But what you lose in the ODIs you gain in the Test Championship; it was just difficult fitting all these match-ups into the existing FTP,” a Cricket South Africa official involved in the new qualification system, told The Citizen.

“But the big thing is we now have better relevance and context for every ODI, every game will now have an effect, even those between the lower-ranked teams. This will make 50-over cricket more meaningful.”

Roster

Australia: v England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan.

Bangladesh: v England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland.

England: v Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands.

India: v Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan.

New Zealand: v Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands.

Pakistan: v Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Netherlands.

South Africa: v Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands.

Sri Lanka: v Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan.

West Indies: v Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands.

Zimbabwe: v Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Afghanistan, Ireland, Netherlands.

Afghanistan: v Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands.

Ireland: v Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Netherlands.

Netherlands: v England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland.