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.”

Pretoria Country Club probably has two favourite current professional golfers in George Coetzee and Tristen Strydom and on Friday the two ‘pets’ went head-to-head in the final round of the Titleist Championship with Coetzee emerging as a four-shot winner in a contest he said was tighter than the final margin suggested.

Coetzee and Strydom began the day both on seven-under-par, but Coetzee added to his two Tshwane Open titles at the Waterkloof course by firing a superb six-under-par 66 on Friday, winning himself R95 100.

The 23-year-old Strydom, in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour, performed admirably to post a 70 and earn R69 000, more than his total previous earnings of R58 877. And the resident and member of the Pretoria Country Club estate would have been properly in contention were it not for consecutive double-bogeys on the par-three fifth and the par-four sixth holes, from which he did exceptionally well to still shoot two-under-par.

“Tristen is a really exciting player, he hits the ball so good and definitely has a bright future. Were it not for just a couple of holes he would have really had me sweating,” Coetzee admitted. “But it’s always special winning at Pretoria Country Club and being a Titleist player, they have both supported me my whole career. I’m really happy to have won in front of everyone who was expecting me to perform, I could hear their cheers from a long way off,” he added below the clubhouse balcony that was littered with people supporting Coetzee and Strydom.

“Usually expectation is the killer so it was nice to pull it off,” Coetzee continued. “I really enjoyed the pressure of playing while in the lead, being in a tournament situation and under stress, because I’ve worked a lot on my mental game in Lockdown and made a lot of good strides. I felt comfortable attacking the flags, tending to a certain side if I missed so I would still be safe.”

Coetzee actually made an awful start to the day with bogeys on the first two holes. A five at the first was in fact a big escape for the 34-year-old, who had to fashion a cunning piece of innovation to only drop one shot as his ball was against the boundary wall. Coetzee hit it into the wall and rebounded it back on to the green.

“The last time I was against that wall was when I was 13 years old, I learnt my lesson then but obviously forgot it today. In the end I was very happy to make bogey because it was a tough putt,” he said.

Another bogey on the par-four second may have suggested Coetzee was vulnerable but it was one of the great cons as he powered his way back from his poor start with six birdies between the fourth and 10^th holes. He added two more birdies on the par-three 14^th and the par-four 17^th holes to complete his 11^th Sunshine Tour victory.

“On the second I basically hit the ball flush over the green so I had really hit just one bad shot, so I was still pretty happy and was confident to still go for the flags,” Coetzee said.

On a glorious sunny day that was fantastic for those wanting to work on a spring tan, Darren Fichardt made the biggest move on the final day with a top-class seven-under 65 that lifted him into fourth place on six-under. Jaco Ahlers completed a solid week’s work with a 67 to finish third on seven-under, two behind second-placed Strydom.

The Rise Up Series now takes a three-week break before resuming with the penultimate event at ERPM Golf Club on September 23.

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.

Alex Noren started the final round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Sunday six strokes behind the leader and said he didn’t feel he had any chance of winning.

But the 34-year-old Swede immediately birdied the first three holes and set about producing a dazzling front nine of just 30 strokes.

As if that wasn’t good enough, he then eagled the 10^th hole and birdied 11 to go to nine-under-par for his round. Suddenly, he was three strokes ahead of overnight leader Jeunghun Wang.

Although he completed the last seven holes in level-par, it was enough for him to double his lead by the end of the day as he signed for an incredible final round of 63 and a six-stroke win on 14-under-par.

“Honestly, I thought I had no chance at the start of the round, this is a really tricky course and the leader had shot 64 yesterday which was like 59 today.

“So I just wanted to get a good round in before the World Tour Championship in Dubai next week, to have a good positive feeling going there, work on my swing a bit. Anything under par I would have been happy,” Noren said after his astonishing victory at the Gary Player Country Club.

None of the other contenders were able to check Noren’s incredible rise up the leaderboard, with the final three-ball of Wang, local favourite Louis Oosthuizen and Andy Sullivan all struggling to get going.

Pars were the order of the day for Oosthuizen, who started the day three behind Wang, and the South African then fell six behind after a double-bogey at the par-three seventh when he got stuck in a greenside bunker.

Wang was a pale shadow of the golfer who had shot an incredible 64 in decidedly unfriendly conditions in the third round, a bogey on the fourth and two dropped shots on the par-four eighth undoing his birdies on the second and fourth holes.

Even though he birdied the par-five ninth to draw level with Noren, it was clear all the momentum was with one of the most in-form players on the European Tour.

It was a hammer blow for Wang when Noren eagled the 10^th and when he sank a superb flop-shot for birdie after short-siding himself on 11, the look of disbelief he received from Henrik Stenson’s caddy said it all.

Back-to-back bogeys on 15 and 16 thanks to wayward tee shots were the final blows to Wang’s chances as the 21-year-old South Korean had to settle for second on eight-under-par.

Sullivan birdied the second hole, but he then made three bogeys to undo the two more birdies he made, finishing with a level-par 72 and in a tie for third, seven strokes behind Noren, with Branden Grace (70), Spaniard Alejandro Canizares (68), Frenchman Victor Dubuisson (68) and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia (67).

Noren said his putter was his most outstanding club and it was hard to argue as his birdie putts on the first, seventh and eighth holes were all longer than 20 feet, as was his eagle putt on the 10^th.

“I was a bit nervous at the start, I didn’t feel on top of my game but something happened and after seven holes I started to realise that I must believe in myself that I can win. My putter was very hot and I’ve never holed so many putts, I think on those first 11 holes, and I got a lot more excited,” Noren said.

Even though he registered his only bogey of the day on the par-five 14^th, after a visit to the infamous love-grass, his victory – his fourth in his last 11 tournaments – was already secure by then.

The win keeps him in contention to win the Race to Dubai next weekend as he has vaulted into third place behind Stenson and Danny Willett, and 2017 will no doubt offer more titles for the newest member of the world top 10.

“I’ve been able to see what sort of game I could have and what I need to do to compete with the best. Today everything worked, but I still have a lot of work to do,” Noren said.

Stenson shot a two-under-par 70 on Sunday to finish in eighth place and will take a 300-point lead into the final event of the Race to Dubai next weekend.

Oosthuizen bogeyed on 16 and then double-dropped on the 17^th to finish on five-under for the tournament and in ninth place.

Grace three-putted for a bogey on the last to slide back into the tie for third, a very costly lapse, but finished as the leading South African.

South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer did confirm that he is still determined to become the first local winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge since Trevor Immelman in 2007.

“I was very disappointed with the three-putt on 18, but tied third is my best finish here yet, and hopefully next year I can come back and improve on that,” Grace said.

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-golf/1343936/noren-producing-top-grade-golf-storm-lead/