Ken Borland

BALLITO (KwaZulu-Natal) – Normally this season when Danie van Tonder has put pressure on the leader in the final round, things have headed south for the frontrunner, but on Friday it was all different as Luke Jerling held his nerve superbly to claim his maiden Sunshine Tour title as he won the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun Sibaya at Umhlali Country Club.

Jerling fired a fantastic three-under-par 68 on Friday to finish on 13-under-par, beating Van Tonder, who closed with a 70, by four strokes in the end. But their gripping duel was much more closely fought than the final winning margin suggests, with Van Tonder, who began the day two behind, drawing level on the 13^th hole.

The former SA Open champion is also in great form at the moment, having won twice in August.

“It feels unbelievable to have finally won. There were times when I never thought this day would come and you wonder if you can get over the line,” a delighted Jerling said. “I haven’t been in this position for a while and going toe-to-toe with Danie was something I really enjoyed for the whole day.

“And the contest was a lot closer than four strokes, there were momentum swings all through the day. From the get-go, Danie came out firing, driving through a narrow gap and over the bunkers on the first hole. But I stuck to my game-plan, putted nicely on the tough greens and my iron play was solid. I was not overly aggressive.

“I really enjoyed being in contention with Danie. The other times I’ve been in contention, I didn’t really enjoy the moment, it was more a feeling of not wanting to mess up. So that’s testament to the work I’ve been doing with my coach Neil Cheetham. My swing really held up under the gun today and it felt like my day, momentum just seemed to be on my side,” Jerling said.

It was a tricky day out on the sub-tropical south-east African coast, with a strong wind blowing. That wind helped Jerling on the hole which he believed was the most critical to his triumph – the par-four 14^th.

“I made a really good birdie on 12 to go two ahead. But then on 13 the wind took my ball left into the trees. I chipped out sideways and then I thought I hit a good third, but the wind didn’t hit it and I was left with a tricky chip. I made bogey and Danie made birdie so that was another two-shot swing.

“But in retrospect it was actually good that Danie teed off first on 14 because he hit a really good shot and I had no choice but to be aggressive. It was playing 259m to the front edge and it was straight downwind. But three-wood was too much and I was worried that two-iron wouldn’t cover the water or the bunkers. In the end I threaded a two-iron between the bunkers, it was probably my shot of the day, leaving me with a 12-foot eagle putt, which I made.”

Jerling was suddenly three shots ahead when Van Tonder, who missed some crucial shortish putts in the final round, bogeyed the par-four 15^th. The Royal Johannesburg and Kensington golfer then parred his way in while Van Tonder, still pushing hard, bogeyed the last two holes.

Pieter Moolman, who has done well on this stretch of coastline before, finished third on eight-under-par, five strokes behind Jerling, after a 70 on Friday, while Heinrich Bruiners (69) had to share fourth place on seven-under with amateur Astin Arthur, who completed his outstanding week with a 71.

BALLITO (KwaZulu-Natal) – Luke Jerling rates Umhlali Country Club as being one of his favourite courses and he continued to show how comfortable he is on the 5943m Peter Matkovich design as he fired a second consecutive 66 on Thursday to claim a two-shot lead after the second round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun Sibaya.

The 32-year-old Jerling had eight birdies but three bogeys on the first day, but he played much more controlled golf on Thursday, dropping just the one shot, on the tough par-four 15^th hole. A hot putter allowed him to collect six birdies as he goes into Saturday’s final round on 10-under-par.

“I really enjoy this golf course, I finished third here in this event last year and just missed out on a playoff,” Jerling said. “I’m not the longest hitter and this is not a bomber’s paradise. There are quite a few fiddly tee-shots and good par-threes.

“Fortunately my short game is my strength and I also made a few putts after struggling for a while with the putter. It was nice to see a few roll in and my iron-play was also very solid,” Jerling said.

Danie van Tonder is poised for another final-round charge as he lies second on eight-under-par, following a 67 on Thursday that included an eagle on the 489m par-five 10^th hole.

Pieter Moolman (66) and Astin Arthur (69), the amateur from nearby Mount Edgecombe who has won five events this year, are tied for third on seven-under-par.

Overnight leader Jacob Oakley endured a disappointing day as he shot a 75 to finish on four-under-par, still inside the top-10 though. There are a host of Sunshine Tour winners in the top-10, including the in-form Malcolm Mitchell, who is ninth on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.

Jerling has come close before to winning his maiden Sunshine Tour title, finishing third three times and being the runner-up in the 2022 Manguang Open. Although he is now based at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, Jerling is with the coastal players who are hoping for the wind to get up in the final round.

“The wind might pick up more and I won’t mind at all coming originally from Port Elizabeth, where you have to shape the ball a bit. It’s the sort of course where my game-plan will be the same whether I’m chasing the cut or enjoying a five-shot lead, I’ll hit the same shots.

“So I’m not going to think too much about the final round, although it would be lovely to get over the line. It’s actually a bonus being in contention because I’ve been doing some good work with my coach Neil Cheetham and we made a breakthrough last week with my driver and my transition of weight, getting a better turn off the ball with more width. I can see the improvement, which is exciting,” Jerling said.

BALLITO (KwaZulu-Natal) – Jacob Oakley improved on his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour for the second tournament in a row as the Englishman fired an excellent eight-under-par 63 on Wednesday to lead the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun Sibaya after the first round at Umhlali Country Club.

Oakley shot a wonderful 65 on the first day of the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Sishen Golf Club on September 20, and even though he then posted rounds of 75 and 74, his finish of tied-18^th was still his best ever on the Sunshine Tour.

That 65 gave him a one-shot lead after the first round, but on Wednesday his 63 saw him open up a two-stroke gap on the well-travelled duo of Trevor Fisher Jnr and Alex Haindl.

The 26-year-old Oakley was also the first to tee-off on the first hole at Umhlali on Wednesday and no-one was able to better his haul of eight birdies. He started slowly with three pars, before three birdies in four holes led him to three-under at the turn. Oakley collected back-to-back birdies on the 12^th and 13^th holes, and then finished brilliantly with three successive birdies, making threes on the 16^th and 17^th holes and then a two on the 182m closing hole.

Having claimed the last of his five Sunshine Tour victories in August 2021 at the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sishen event, Haindl may have wondered when his next appearance at the top of a leaderboard would happen, finishing 93^rd and 160^th on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy since then. He has not made a cut in five events this season.

But the Schoeman Park golfer was inspired on Wednesday, collecting seven birdies by the 16^th hole, but then dropping his only shot on the 18^th.

Fisher Jnr began his round on the 10^th and reached the turn on three-under. He then birdied the first hole but dropped a shot at the par-four second. But an eagle on the par-five fifth was followed by a birdie on his last hole, the par-four ninth, as he joined Haindl in the tie for second.

Astin Arthur, the winner of the Western Province, Indian Ocean and Southern Cape amateur opens this year and the runner-up in the South African Strokeplay Championship, was another surprise packet on Wednesday as he shot a five-under-par 66 to be in the tie for fourth place on four-under-par.

Luke Jerling, who made eight birdies but also three bogeys, and Malcolm Mitchell also shot 66s.

The last time AB de Villiers led South Africa was in December 2017 as the stand-in captain for the only day/night Test this country has hosted – an innovation that turned into a freak show as Zimbabwe were beaten by an innings-and-120-runs in less than two days at St George’s Park.

The experiment has never been repeated by the Proteas. But De Villiers will be back at the helm of another national team when he skippers the South Africa squad in another innovative cricket event – the World Championship of Legends to be held in England from July 18 to August 2.

This enterprising T20 tournament has already enjoyed a successful first season, with 325 million viewers watching the televised matches last year, and more than 100 000 spectators coming to the stadiums used for the inaugural event – Edgbaston in Birmingham and the Northampton County Ground.

This year, the venues being used have doubled to include Grace Road in Leicester and Headingley in Leeds. The tournament is open to any cricketer who is 33 or older and is not signed up by their national board.

The South African team that missed out on the semifinals last year on nett run-rate included several players of the world-beating side of around 15 years ago – JP Duminy, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Charl Langeveldt, Vernon Philander, Ryan McLaren, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Herschelle Gibbs, Makhaya Ntini and Ashwell Prince.

But they lost their first three games against much younger teams, but then beat India and Pakistan, the two sides that contested the final, which India won.  The turnaround came largely due to the introduction of two current players in Sarel Erwee and Jacques Snyman. The lesson has been learned, though, and De Villiers will lead a squad that features many more players of the previous decade and not the one before that.

The likes of Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Wayne Parnell, Duanne Olivier, Jon-Jon Smuts and Erwee all played domestic franchise cricket last summer. Viljoen, Parnell, Smuts and Erwee have been part of the SA20 competition.

The firepower that still-fast bowlers like Viljoen, Parnell and Olivier can bring suggests South Africa are going back to the traditional strength of pace bowling.

The presence of De Villiers, still the hero of millions, is a massive coup for the World Championship of Legends, along with the recently-retired Chris Morris, Albie Morkel and Hashim Amla.

De Villiers said he made the decision to return to playing cricket thanks to the backyard games he is involved in with his two boys, aged nine and seven. He will be hoping to continue in the same vein as the tremendous 101 not out he scored off just 28 balls for the Titans Legends against the Bulls Legends at SuperSport Park on March 9.

“The kids keep me busy playing cricket in the garden, I’ve become a bowler thanks to them,” the 41-year-old De Villiers said at the launch of the South Africa Champions team at the Wanderers. “I’ve really enjoyed playing with them and now I want to go out and enjoy every second on the cricket field again. I’ll be with familiar faces and I will just go out and compete and hopefully we can sneak in a few wins.

“To be honest, the bowling wasn’t too hard against the Bulls and I started two weeks before with net sessions. But I’ve always had a lot of respect for my opponents, sometimes they have won our contests. So I just want to enjoy some more special moments with my team-mates, I haven’t been in a changeroom for many years,” De Villiers said.

Amla has travelled to Qatar and India in recent years to play in Masters tournaments and will also be looking to continue some good recent form as he scored 76 and 82* in the recent International Masters League earlier this year.

“I was really worried when I went to India in February having had just one net beforehand, worried if I could still see the ball,” Amla said with a chuckle. “But it went well, although it takes time to get back into it.

“The competitiveness is actually very high, there are top cricketers playing like Chris Gayle, the Universe Boss. And we will be wearing South Africa on our chest, so we are representing the country,” Amla said.

South Africa squad: Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris, AB de Villiers, Duanne Olivier, Jon-Jon Smuts, Sarel Erwee, Imran Tahir, Morne van Wyk, Dane Vilas, Albie Morkel, Richard Levi, Hashim Amla.