Ken Borland

CENTURION, Gauteng – Chipping in on the 10^th green and then making birdie on the 13^th proved to be the key blows as Martin Rohwer and Merrick Bremner held off the chasing pack to win the Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship by six strokes at Blue Valley Golf Estate on Saturday.

Rohwer and Bremner took a four-stroke lead into the betterball final round of the R1.2 million event, but that had all but evaporated as Combrinck Smit nailed a hole-in-one on the 173m second hole and then Erhard Lambrechts sank his second for an albatross on the par-five third hole.

But they are relative greenhorns compared to Bremner and Rohwer and the KwaZulu-Natal duo held their nerve superbly in tough, blustery conditions. Even so, they were only a couple of strokes ahead as they completed the front nine, before Rohwer chipped in for eagle on the 10^th and Bremner made an important birdie putt on the par-five 13^th.

“The wind was up today so it made it tough,” Rohwer said. “But we hung in there and dovetailed together quite well. The chip-in at 10 and then a huge birdie at 13 when Merrick chipped it almost dead, just pulled us clear a bit.

“We had seen a scoreboard on the ninth so we knew exactly how well Erhard and Combrinck were doing. But we stayed pretty aggressive and those three shots gained made it much easier for us down the stretch,” Rohwer said.

Bremner and Rohwer birdied the 15^th and then the par-five closing hole to finish with a 62 and 28-under-par overall. Lambrechts and Smit eventually posted a 61 to leave themselves on 22-under, alongside Jean Hugo and Hennie du Plessis, who were also 11-under on Saturday.

The victory was a particular relief for Bremner, a 36-year-old tour veteran for whom success has been as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster over the last year or so. It is his first victory since 2020.

For Rohwer, who claimed his second title at the Vodacom Origins of Golf final in January, the triumph rounded off a near-perfect week.

“It really helps with my exemption category which was going to run out in January. So now I’m in all the big co-sanctioned events and it’s just nice to win after putting in all the prep.

“It’s also massive for Merrick, who was great to have as a partner. It’s always special teaming up with a mate.

“And I absolutely loved the betterball-foursomes-betterball format, from start to finish,” Rohwer said.

Having restricted world No.5 Belgium to just a 2-1 lead going into the final quarter, South Africa will burn with regret that they let their opening Women’s Hockey World Cup match slip and lost 4-1 at the weekend, making Tuesday’s clash against Japan vital if they are to make the quarterfinals.

A wonderful defensive effort by the 15^th-ranked South Africans saw them keep Belgium scoreless in the first 15 minutes, repelling 13 circle entries, seven penalty corners and seven shots at goal. But Belgium eventually broke through in the second quarter, with two penalty corner goals in a minute scored by Stephanie van den Borre.

But the setback did not douse the flame of returning coach Giles Bonnet’s team, and they fought back to dominate the closing stages of the first half, pulling the score back to 2-1 as debutant Jean-Leigh du Toit fired into goal from a short corner.

That gave them some momentum and belief, and the teams slogged out a goal-less, tight third quarter, South Africa being unable to convert from two penalty corners.

Unfortunately for the South Africans, it was the Europeans who took the game by the scruff of the neck in the final quarter and they were at their most dominant, winning seven penalty corners and creating 17 shots at goal. Charlotte Engelbert was open on the back post at a short corner and she finished easily, before adding her second goal when she reacted first from a save by goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande and fired into the bottom-left corner.

“We are in a very tough pool, but there’s always a surprise result in these tournaments and we hoped it would be us,” Bonnet said.

Having opened their campaign with a defeat, the South Africans play Japan on Tuesday at 6pm. Japan lost 2-0 to Australia in their opening match, so both teams will be desperate for a win to qualify for the quarterfinal crossover phase of the tournament, which is being staged in Spain and the Netherlands.

At 22-years-old, Elrigh Louw was the baby of the Springbok team at the weekend, making his Test debut off the bench in the city of his birth, but the loose forward was certainly not over-awed as he produced a powerful display in the second-half comeback by the home side against Wales at Loftus Versfeld.

Whether carrying powerfully, making crunching tackles or standing up to the gibberish of Dan Biggar, Louw was influential in the half-hour he spent on the field.

Captain Siya Kolisi praised the Bulls talent afterwards saying, “Elrigh was special, it’s amazing how chilled he was.”

Louw himself exuded the air of someone with a very mature, focused head on his shoulders.

“We were under pressure when I came on, but I knew exactly what I had to do. I was able to enjoy it. I was actually more emotional when I heard I was in the 23 than running on the field,” Louw said after the 32-29 win.

“When I ran on, I knew my goal and I did not think about my emotions. I knew my Pa and Ma would be very emotional though.

“It’s an honour to hear my name mentioned as a Bomb Squad member, but the important thing was I knew exactly what the coaches expected of me,” Louw said.

The superb attack that resulted in Cheslin Kolbe’s crucial 65^th-minute try that closed Wales’ lead to just two points would see Louw go perilously close to scoring himself under the poles after a storming run.

“I just had one thing in mind and that was to dot the ball down on my debut, but Wales tied my shoelaces together quite well in the end,” Louw laughed.

He was more serious when taking co-responsibility for the rolling maul try the Springbok forwards conceded in the 77^th minute as Wales levelled the score at 29-29 with two forwards in the sin-bin.

“We will definitely go and have another look at that and what went wrong. For our pack that was not acceptable at all,” Louw said with a face that must have resembled the one he had whenever he was caught being naughty at Hoerskool Transvalia not that long ago.

But one of the nicest features of the weekend thriller in Pretoria was the birth of another new Springbok career that is sure to go a long way.

Deon Fourie has been around South African rugby for a while, making his senior debut for Western Province in 2005, and he also played in France for seven years with Lyon and Grenoble, but the 35-year-old Stormers hero has always had a burning desire to be chosen for the Springboks.

Following his sensational displays in leading the Stormers to the United Rugby Championship title, he was selected to the Springbok squad for the first time, alongside seven other uncapped players.

On Thursday, the utility forward had completed his first week of training with the Springboks and his face, battered as it has been this season from all his tremendous efforts at the breakdown, was beaming.

“The intensity is way higher up than at provincial level, and, at the age of 35, it takes me longer to get up and running and I’m feeling it a bit,” Fourie smiled at their Pretoria hotel.

“Some guys have waited 22 years for their dream to come true, but for me it’s been 35 years. So it’s just great to be here and to realise my dream,” he said.

Fourie’s Stormers team-mate Evan Roos, also immense in the URC triumph, is 22 years old and perhaps who the elder statesman was referring to.

“This is a boyhood dream come true,” Roos said. “I watched most of these guys growing up, so it feels a bit surreal to be in the same squad as them now.

“But I’m excited about working hard on my game and making sure the important little things get better,” Roos said.

While new faces certainly bring an injection of energy and fresh ideas into a squad, it is a universal truth in rugby that experience is vital at international level.

And Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said that, coupled with a burning desire to restore their pride, will make Wales dangerous opponents in South Africa’s first three Tests of the year, starting on July 2 at Loftus Versfeld.

“We have an average of 26 caps per player, while Wales has 36 so they have experienced players who have been there before,” Nienaber said. “Their clubs also didn’t make the playoffs in the URC, so they have had a nice month to prepare.

“I’m not sure if they are pushing the restart button from the Six Nations, but I know from 2018 when we were desperate that you do desperate things. We changed our defensive system and the way we kick.

“They have had a lot of negative publicity, a desperate team is always dangerous and it is always a tough battle against Wales. Coach Wayne Pivac said their mission was to win a Test in South Africa for the first time.

“So we will prepare for what we think will come our way, but we will have to adapt on the field, do it on the run. We’re going to have to be unbelievably solutions-driven,” Nienaber said.