Ken Borland

George Coetzee is once again atop the leaderboard at Pretoria Country Club after shooting a five-under-par 67 in the first round of the Titleist Championship on Wednesday, but the seasoned pro of 13-and-a-half years’ standing was joined later in the day on the same score by rookie Hennie O’Kennedy.

The 34-year-old Coetzee has been winning tournaments at Pretoria Country Club since he was 10 years old and won two of his four European Tour titles here  – the Tshwane Opens of 2015 and 2018. And his bogey-free round on Wednesday put him one ahead of another rookie in Clayton Mansfield and two ahead of Sunshine Tour stalwarts Jaco Ahlers and Merrick Bremner.

But Coetzee warned that the fact he feels right at home on the parklands layout is no guarantee of ultimate success.

“It’s nice to be back here on a golf course I’m very comfortable on. I played with Ulrich van den Berg [74] today and he said to me, ‘You just know where to go here’, and after the round I thought, ‘Ja, I kind of do know where to go on this golf course’. If you play well and you’re in a good space, it helps.

“But there’s no such thing as a gimme in golf. If that was the case I would’ve won every tournament I’ve played at Pretoria Country Club, and I obviously haven’t. But it’s nice to finally get my first bogey-free round in tournament golf post-Lockdown, I haven’t expected much and I didn’t deliver much in the Series so far. It’s nice to finally post a decent number,” Coetzee said.

The Titleist Championship is the third 54-hole event of the Rise Up Series, a five-event schedule that represents the rising up of professional golf on many fronts, and O’Kennedy is one of several new faces marketing themselves as the potential future stars of South African golf.

O’Kennedy turned pro last year and enjoyed an excellent campaign on the Big Easy Tour, winning at Crown Mines and enjoying four other top-10 finishes. On Wednesday, as he celebrated his 24th birthday, O’Kennedy collected seven birdies and dropped just one shot on each of the nines in just his third Sunshine Tour event.

“It was a lovely birthday present and shooting in the 60s is always nice, it means there’s a bit less pressure in terms of making the cut. It was quite nice conditions today, not hot and not windy, although the cold weather meant we had to work on an extra three metres for every shot.

“I guess I am a big-hitter and that gave me a slight advantage in that I had short-irons coming in to the par-fives. But the layout of this course is so good, especially the par-fours, that you have to really think about your tee-shot. You can’t just take Driver everyhwere and you need to keep out of the bunkers.

“I think my round today showed that the Big Easy Tour is a great stepping-stone and preparation for the Sunshine Tour. The cut is often 30 players or less, which pepares you better because you’ve got to shoot low. Now I’m going to go home and rest and have some cake. I’ll stay away fom the beer until the tournament is done,” O’Kennedy, who hails from Stellenbosch Golf Club, said.

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.

George Coetzee and Jaco van Zyl are at the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Chase to the Investec Cup final, but both are relieved that their torment on the beautiful but treacherous Millvale course is now over as the elite 30-man field relocates to Sun City for the last two rounds on the Lost City course.

Coetzee, who shared the overnight lead with Charl Schwartzel, shot a two-under-par 70 on Friday to go to six-under for the tournament, alone in front and projected to finish first in the Chase to the Investec Cup final standings, which would win him the bonus pool prize of a cool R3.5 million.

Van Zyl, after shooting 73 on the first day, produced Friday’s best round, a five-under-par 67 that lifted him to four-under overall, two shots behind Coetzee.

Both their rounds featured just one bogey, a six on the par-five sixth for Van Zyl and for Coetzee on the seventh, a remarkable effort on a course as tough as Millvale with its slick greens, plenty of water and a tricky wind.

“You’ve just got to try and stick around here, it’s a great test of golf with firm greens, the flags tucked away and a lot of water. If you start on the 10^th then you have seven really tough holes on the trot from the 15^th to the third and you just try for level-par.

“It should be a bit easier at Lost City on Saturday and Sunday, there’s a bit more scoring opportunities. I’m hitting the ball well, so I look forward to that,” Van Zyl, who was the inaugural Chase to the Investec Cup champion in 2013, said.

“I survived – it was another tough day,” Coetzee said. “I didn’t play as well today, but I scrambled and made pars. I drove the ball better yesterday, but I putted better today. I’m where I want to be, but there’s still a lot of golf to play.”

The Millvale course is hard enough without bad luck playing a part, but Van Zyl’s bogey on six came when a bee landed on his ball on his downswing and he put his second into the water, while Schwartzel, the co-leader after the first round, woke up with a painful shoulder and slipped down the leaderboard after shooting a 74.

It was a good effort by Schwartzel considering every shot had him in pain, but the 2011 Masters champion said he will be forced to withdraw on Saturday if anti-inflammatories can’t get the swelling down.

Schwartzel is four behind Coetzee, alongside Justin Harding, who has produced two sub-par rounds of 71 practically out of nowhere given his recent form.

Darren Fichardt, Dean Burmester and Jean Hugo, all long-time Sunshine Tour pros, are all on one-under-par and in a position to shake up the leaderboard over the weekend.

*Defending champion Lee-Anne Pace, South Africa’s highest-ranked women’s golfer, fired a three-under-par 68 to lead the Investec Cup for Ladies by three strokes over Monique Smit after the first round.

Six golfers put themselves at the top of the leaderboard on Saturday, sharing a one-shot lead as the Tshwane Open enters what will be a thrilling final round at Pretoria Country Club on Sunday.