Ken Borland

Branden Grace produced an addictive blend of power off the tee and precise, risk-free golf as he surged to a seven-stroke victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in Malelane on Sunday.

Grace has now led a European Tour event going into the final round on five occasions and has won every time; whatever it is that courses through his veins in those pressure situations, the sports medicine industry would no doubt love to turn it into a drug.

Without detracting from the quality of golf he produced on Sunday in shooting a four-under-par 68, Grace’s task was made easier by his nearest challengers, Lucas Bjerregaard and Danny Willett, both playing the back nine as if they were in a stupor, plummeting down the leaderboard.

Grace dared to take driver off the tee on a course that has plenty of punishing bush to catch the offline shot.

“I was great off the tee, on a course where you really need to be. I felt so comfortable with my driver and the par-fives were the big turnaround today, I played them in one-over yesterday [Saturday], but today I was four-under,” Grace said.

The 26-year-old started well with birdies at the second and fourth holes and even though he bogeyed the par-three seventh after finding the matted grass left of the green, he was out in 34 and was two ahead of Willett.

Bjerregaard had been knocked to the canvas by a triple-bogey six at the seventh. His tee shot was even further left than Grace’s, in thicker grass, but his chip looked like a good one. Unfortunately for the Dane, it just kept rolling on the hard and fast green, past the hole and into the water.

He was probably still upset about his bad luck when he bogeyed the eighth, but then everything fell apart on the back nine as Bjerregaard came home in an astonishing 50 comprising five bogeys, two double-bogeys and a quadruple-bogey on the par-four 11^th. His final round of 89 is surely the worst by a player in the leading group on the last day of a tournament.

Willett was two-under for his round through 15 holes, but his cheeky smile turned into a scowl on 16 when his tee-shot was short of the green and in the water on the par-three. He then bogeyed 17 and was thoroughly disheartened by the time he carded an eight on the 18^th to finish in a tie for fourth on 10-under after a 76.

Their ham-fisted efforts at catching him brought some sympathy from Grace.

“This course does that to you, as soon as you start to push it bites you. Lucas was a bit unlucky on the seventh and after that nothing went his way. But to win so convincingly is nice, it’s a great start to the new season after a hard year,” Grace said.

Just to add to the local flavour of celebration, Louis Oosthuizen shot a fine three-under-par 69 and climbed into second place on 13-under and was waiting to spray his good friend Grace with champagne on the 18^th green.

It was a win to savour for Grace, beating a quality field and returning to the European Tour’s winners’ circle after two years.

“It’s something special being the first player to win wire-to-wire here because this is one of the tournaments every South African golfer wants to win, especially because of what Mr and Mrs Rupert do for golf. My game was spot-on today, there weren’t a lot of misses, maybe two bad shots all day,” Grace said.

Englishman Andrew Johnston, who finished on top of the Challenge Tour rankings, shot a one-over-par 73 on Sunday, but it was enough for him to jump up to third, while South African Trevor Fisher Jnr was on fire on the back nine, carding five birdies to finish with a 69 and tied with Willett in fourth place.

 http://citizen.co.za/293512/grace-victorious-alfred-dunhill-championship/

–

Golf fans at Leopard Creek this weekend will be able to scrutinise one of the strangest techniques in the game after Englishman Jason Palmer made the cut in the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Friday.

Palmer, a European Tour rookie, played his way into the weekend, making it on the number as he shot a 73 to reach the halfway mark on one-under-par. He is already something of a talking point on tour, however, because in addition to his unorthodox swing, he also chips one-handed.

“It’s funny because when I have good weeks, I tend to hit a lot of greens and maybe only chip once or twice in a round, so when I’m playing good golf you won’t see a lot of that, but when I’m playing badly you’ll see quite a lot of it.

“I still enjoy missing greens and trying to get up-and-down with one hand. I enjoy that aspect of the game, whereas if I was doing it with two hands I’d be a nervous wreck. I’m not sure if other professionals have had similar problems to me and then worried about looking foolish if they went one-handed. I do hit the odd bad chip, but so does everybody. I just know that method is way more effective than the two-handed method, so it’s still an absolute no-brainer for me,” Palmer told the European Tour website.

While South African golfing guru Dale Hayes says a bad dose of the yips would be the only reason for Palmer’s one-handed approach and that it has no technical benefits, one has to admire someone who is willing to do it his own way and is succeeding.

“It’s very easy to coach one method and stick with that, but there is so much to golf and there are so many ways to go about playing golf that I don’t think you can criticise one method. There have been so many unique swings down the years that have proved very effective and hopefully I can prove to be another one of those,” Palmer said.

One golfer who would do well to heed his advice is South African George Coetzee, whose game appears to be in full-scale decline as he bombed to a 76 on Friday and missed the cut by three strokes. This after a year in which his world ranking has dropped to 80.

The chunky 28-year-old has added a baffling new pre-stroke routine to his game and it has not done him any good.

Coetzee is so talented that he should just back his natural game rather than making wholesale changes based on the advice of coaches.

The influence of coaches in golf is spreading, but for some golfers, it just creates more noise in their head, confusion and failure.

Danny Willett was in pole position with a four-shot lead as the Nedbank Golf Challenge entered the final straight at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City on Sunday.

The English trio of Willett, Luke Donald and Ross Fisher made up the final three-ball and were the only golfers who had a realistic chance of claiming the title and the first-prize cheque of $1.25 million.

Donald began the day with a one-stroke lead over Willett, with Fisher another two shots back.

But Willett roared out of the blocks, his list of birdies in the first five holes earning him a comfortable lead, which he built on with another shot gained at the par-five 10^th, taking him to 16-under through 12 holes.

Fisher, who won the Tshwane Open in Centurion earlier this year, was tied for second place on 12-under with Donald after going out in two-under 34 thanks to consecutive birdies at the eighth and ninth holes.

The tall 34-year-old then drained a 15-foot birdie putt on the 10^th, but a wayward drive on the 11^th, rebounding off the trees but not allowing him a shot at the green with his second, led to a bogey.

Donald also clawed a shot back when he birdied the par-five ninth after laying up – Willett getting on in two but misreading his eagle-putt – but the former world number one immediately gave the stroke back with a bogey at 10, a visit to a fairway bunker which he couldn’t initially get out of costing him an extra shot.

The fickle fortunes of golf were clearly displayed in the opening holes of the final round as Willett snatched a three-shot lead.

Overnight leader Donald must have been contemplating what a harsh mistress the game can be as, on his birthday, he bogeyed two of the first five holes and watched Willett fire his way to the top of the leaderboard with three birdies.

And just to top his frustration, Donald birdied the par-four sixth after a super approach shot but watched Willett escape from trouble as he salvaged a par with a brilliant up-and-down after being embedded in the bunker behind the green.

Willett had a perfect record from the fringe, a delightful chip down the hill on the par-five second setting up a birdie and the 27-year-old then rolled in birdie putts from the fringe on the third and fifth holes, both par-fours.

Donald’s 10-foot birdie putt on the sixth pulled one stroke back after bogeys on the third and fifth holes led to a pair of two-stroke swings with Willett.

On the third, Donald put his approach into the bunker left of the flag, short-siding himself, and an awkward lie meant he could only chip across the green. The birthday boy, celebrating his 37^th, short-sided himself again on the fifth with a wayward approach shot over the green.

Fisher would have been perfectly happy with his start as a 10-foot putt on the par-three fourth gave him his second birdie. But successive bogeys then undid those gains, his approach on the fifth finishing short of the green and a wayward drive on six, followed by his third shot going over the green, led to another dropped shot, leaving him five behind Willett.

Frenchman Alexander Levy was also contemplating the vagaries of the game as he took 10 at the par-five ninth, twice hitting from the drop zone into the water surrounding the green. To his credit, he was still smiling as he trudged off the green and he birdied the 10^th and 11^th holes.