Ken Borland

Englishman Andy Sullivan said he would be happy to play all his golf in Johannesburg after he added the Joburg Open title on Sunday to the South African Open he won seven weeks ago at Glendower, the 28-year-old sealing a two-shot triumph with a brilliant 66.

Sullivan won the national open in a dramatic playoff with Charl Schwartzel, impressing with his happy demeanour despite the tension down the stretch, and yesterday he was once again relaxed as he dropped just one shot in making up a three-shot deficit.

“I’ve been working hard with my coach and psychologist, but enjoying myself too. Every time I’m in contention, I wish I could bottle those emotions, it’s an unbelievable feeling and I seem to thrive on it.

“I wish I could play in Johannesburg every week! I felt really good down the stretch at Glendower and even better today. There wasn’t any pressure, I was very relaxed and it was just me and ‘Macca’ [caddy Sean McDonagh] having a laugh, a Saturday afternoon stroll on the golf course,” Sullivan said after his second European Tour title.

There were a handful of golfers in contention in the final round, with the lead changing hands several times, but the most serious challenges came from fellow Englishmen Anthony Wall and David Howell.

But both made a couple of crucial errors in the closing holes.

Wall bogeyed 15 after his approach slid off the green into the reeds surrounding the dam in front of the putting surface, while his drive on the final hole went under the trees on the left, forcing him to settle for par when he really needed at least a birdie to put pressure on Sullivan.

Howell sent his drive into the water on 14 which led to bogey, and then missed a crucial five-foot birdie putt on 15.

Sullivan himself was holding a tenuous one-shot lead when he found the water with his approach shot on the par-four 11^th, but a brilliant 25-foot pressure putt saw him limit the damage to just a bogey.

The man from the English midlands then closed out a thrilling win with a top-class finish, birdies on 15 and 18 sealing victory.

There was a tense moment on 18 when he left his eagle putt eight feet short of the hole and was left with a tricky, and crucial, birdie putt.

“I knew if I got a birdie on the last I’d have a really good chance of winning, but I left myself with a bit more than I would have liked. But I did not believe my second win would come so quickly, I thought it was unbelievable to win the SA Open but this is even better,” a beaming Sullivan said.

Overnight leader Wallie Coetsee missed several birdie putts as he shot a one-under-par 71 and finished in the bunch of runners-up on 15-under – Wall, Howell, Ireland’s Kevin Phelan and fellow South African Jaco van Zyl.

The iron play of Coetsee was just not sharp enough to get him closer to the flags, and he also missed out on one of the entries to the Open Championship which went to Sullivan, Wall and Howell after the tie-breaker of world golf ranking had been applied.

“I’ve never played in a major championship before, so obviously that’s massive. It will also be nice to put a stop to the stick of my manager and caddy, who have both played in majors, and it’s at St Andrew’s, the home of golf, on top of that,” Sullivan said.

One of the biggest smiles in golf is only getting bigger.

South African Open champion Andy Sullivan returns to Johannesburg and the Joburg Open starting today doorstepping the top-50 in the world and a ticket to the major championships, which means he is confident he can contend at the co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour/European Tour event at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.

“Finishing fifth here last year and then winning the SA Open at Glendower down the road in December makes it nice to come back. I’m keen to have a crack at it and I’m full of confidence. I’m swinging it quite well after a two-week break, so I’m looking forward to this week.

“I’ve never played a major championship. To play the Open in your own country would be absolutely fantastic. I don’t want to put too much emphasis on it, because I think I’ve done that in the past and underperformed. For me, it’s about going out there and trying to enjoy myself,” Sullivan said on Wednesday.

The 73^rd-ranked Sullivan is the highest-ranked golfer in the field, but the local challenge will be a strong one with the Joburg Open title being won by a South African six times, including the last five years consecutively, in the eight-year history of the event.

The defending champion, George Coetzee, will bring his intimate knowledge of the course and is eager to mount a strong defence of his maiden European Tour crown, while Richard Sterne, bidding to become the first golfer to win three Joburg Opens, and Thomas Aiken are also amongst the favourites.

“Every week I’m posting one or two good numbers, it’s just a matter of putting four together. Hopefully being comfortable with the course will put me in good stead for this week,” Coetzee said.

Aiken is out to register his fourth European Tour win, but he acknowledges that there are a host of extremely talented South African golfers looking to use the Joburg Open as a stepping stone.

“There is a big field this week and a lot of youngsters, and that’s really what this tournament was made to be. It aims to give a lot of people the chance to play a European Tour event.

“Funnily enough, the more people you have, the lower the cuts get. It’s renowned here that the cut is low, and it shows that everyone out there can play. When you have more than 200 players, there will be 100 that play well, so the margins are very small. That’s the beauty of the game, you don’t see the same guy winning every week. That’s the nature of it. It would be boring if the same guy won every week, although I’d love to be the person who does that!” Aiken said.

It’s been a very dry February in Johannesburg, so the 210 golfers teeing off today will have an office that will provide plenty of run, making an already fairly short course even shorter. But those Royal Johannesburg and Kensington greens are as small as ever.

Bismarck du Plessis, widely regarded as the world’s best hooker, is back in the starting line-up for the Springboks’ crunch Test against the All Blacks in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The South Africans are fortunate, of course, to be able to call on Adriaan Strauss of the Free State Cheetahs as the back-up on the bench, while Saracens star Schalk Brits is also in the wider squad but cannot break into the match-day 23.

The Springboks struggled in the tight phases during the first half of the Rugby Championship and the younger brother of tighthead prop Jannie has never been known as the strongest scrummager, while the inconsistency of his lineout throwing was also exploited by the Argentineans and especially by the Wallabies in Perth.

The most noticeable sign that something was amiss with Bismarck, however, came in the absence of the massive hits, storming ball-carries and steals on the ground that he was famous for last year.

The elevation of Strauss to the starting line-up saw an improvement in the Springboks’ set-pieces but it has also allowed Du Plessis to make more of an impact coming off the bench.

So is Du Plessis’ star on the wane or is this just a temporary loss of form for the Sharks powerhouse?

At the age of 30, it is more likely to be the latter and the Sharks’ insistence on playing Du Plessis in all 17 of their SuperRugby games this year seemed to have diluted the energy of one of the most explosive rugby players in the world.

“Bismarck has played a lot of rugby this year and we always planned to rest him. He’s had a good break now after Adriaan started three in a row, and the selection is purely a rotation, to keep both players fresh,” Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer confirmed.

“Adriaan is playing some of the best rugby of his whole career, but last week against Australia took a lot out of the players, the ball was in play more than ever before and there were more tackles as well. It doesn’t matter who starts, they both have very strong points and they’re both in-form.”

The Knights batsmen are being hampered by the weather in Johannesburg as they dominated the Highveld Lions on the second day of their domestic four-day series match at the Wanderers on Friday.

Having seen the entire first day lost due to a wet pitch, play only started at 12.20pm on Friday with the Knights being sent in to bat.

They cruised to 193 for two before bad light stopped play at 4.50pm with 20.2 overs still scheduled to be bowled on the second day.

The Lions attack are being punished for wayward bowling as the Knights put together solid partnerships of 58, 88 and 47 runs unbeaten, to grab control of the clash between the teams that are second and third on the log.

Opener Reeza Hendricks made 62 before he drove a Hardus Viljoen half-volley straight to extra cover and Rilee Rossouw rammed home the Knights’ advantage in the late afternoon with 67 not out off 130 balls.

Medium-pacer Brett Pelser made the other breakthrough for the Lions on a disappointing day for them, ending an opening stand of 58 between Hendricks and Gihahn Cloete by having the latter caught behind for 33.

Rudi Second is with Rossouw at the crease on 28 not out and the pair have added 47 runs for the third wicket in 77 minutes.

The Dolphins are in control of their match against the Warriors in East London after bowling the home side out for 240.

The Dolphins made 339 in their first innings for a lead of 99 runs, which they stretched to 133 by stumps as they reached 34 for one in their second innings.

Unorthodox left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, brought in for his first match of the campaign, was the chief destroyer for the Dolphins, claiming five for 68 in 21 overs, while young Daryn Dupavillon took three for 43.

The Warriors innings started solidly with Michael Price (28) and the in-form David White (35) adding 54 for the first wicket.

But White was then bowled by the orthodox left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj and the Warriors only had one other partnership of significance as captain Ashwell Prince (36) and Colin Ingram (54*) added 65 for the fourth wicket.

But Shamsi made the breakthrough and then he and Dupavillon ran through the lower-order, leaving Ingram as the last man standing.

The Titans were kept afloat in their first innings of their match against the Cape Cobras at Boland Park in Paarl by Graeme van Buuren, the diminutive 23-year-old scoring 83 not out to lead them to 183 for four at stumps.

Replying to the Cobras’ first innings of 429, the Titans were in early trouble as they slipped to 21 for two, but Van Buuren united with skipper Henry Davids (41) and then Qaasim Adams (32) to dig the visitors out of trouble.

The Titans bowlers had been in all sorts of states of disarray on the first day, as shown by the 43 extras they conceded as the Cobras reached 345 for five, but they fought back well on Friday to claim the last five wickets for 84 runs.

Junior Dala rebounded well from a horrible first day as he took two wickets, and leg-spinner Shaun von Berg ran through the tail to take four for 102 in 30 overs.

The highly-rated Vincent Moore took three for 67, knocking over three of the top four batsmen.

Dane Vilas (77) and Justin Kemp (42) took their overnight stand to 53 on Friday morning, but the Cobras would have wanted more runs from the lower-order.

Rory Kleinveldt asked plenty of questions with the ball for the Cobras and Heino Kuhn, bowled for a duck by the fifth ball of the innings, and Davids, trapped lbw, did not have the answers.

The Cobras have picked up 6.08 bonus points so far, stretching their lead on the log to nearly 10 points over the Knights.

The Cobras are on 81.10 points, the Knights on 71.22 and the third-placed Dolphins are on 66.86 points.

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