Ken Borland

Danie van Tonder was happy to divulge he felt his fair share of frustration on the final day of the Vodacom Championship Unlocked, but the 29-year-old showed his ever-growing maturity as he nevertheless sealed a second victory in the Rise Up Series with a five-under-par 67 at ERPM Golf Club on Friday.

Van Tonder finished on 13-under-par overall, his brilliant final round lifting him one stroke clear of MJ Viljoen, who led after the first two rounds but battled gamely to a 73 on Friday.

The Boksburg-born Van Tonder began the final day five shots behind Viljoen, but that quickly changed to just a one-stroke gap as Van Tonder started birdie-birdie and Viljoen double-bogeyed the par-five second after struggling in a greenside bunker.

But Van Tonder went on to bogey both par-threes on the front nine, a shifting, inconsistent wind making life hard for the golfers. But birdies on the crucial eighth, 10^th and 11^th holes got last year’s Sunshine Tour order of merit runner-up back on track.

“The wind made it hard, but I like it when the weather is tough. I made a few bogeys [3] but quite a few birdies [8] so it didn’t matter, I’m always aggressive and it pays off most of the time. Sometimes I got frustrated, especially when I short-sided myself on the two par-threes on the front nine, those were silly bogeys, and I three-putted the par-five fourth, but in this weather most of the field have bogeys on their card,” Van Tonder said.

“Overall I’m very happy, I’ve been playing well, putting the hard work in and getting some results. I’m trusting myself and my caddy – my wife Abigail –  and I know that if I don’t hit the right shot then I will be punished, especially in this wind. It would be nice to win the order of merit, but I won’t think about that, just playing well and then the order of merit automatically takes care of itself.

Van Tonder goes into the final event of the Rise Up Series, at Huddle Park next week, leading the order of merit by more than R37 000 from Darren Fichardt, who finished tied-fourth at ERPM GC after finishing with a level-par 72.

Viljoen suggested after the penultimate round that firm, bouncy greens were his pet hate and the ERPM greenskeepers did no watering overnight, making conditions extremely tricky, especially with the fickle wind. Viljoen went out in three-over 39 with further bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes, and then bogeyed the 11^th, but kept his composure well and came storming back with a birdie on the par-three 12^th and an eagle on the 13^th. A birdie on the par-five 17^th meant he remained in contention and needed a birdie on the last to force a playoff. The par-four 18^th was a tricky hole to birdie though, with a tough approach, and just three threes were recorded there on Friday. But Viljoen patted his 25-foot putt short.

Pieter Moolman will also feel he let slip a golden chance for his maiden Sunshine Tour win as he bogeyed the last to finish third on 11-under-par. Understandably going for birdie, he went over the green, chipped back to four feet but then missed the par putt.

Louis de Jager, fresh off an eagle on 17, needed a birdie as well for a share of what was then the lead, but also overshot the 18^th green, settling for par, and a 67 to finish in a tie for fourth on 10-under-par with Ulrich van den Berg (68) and Fichardt (72).

Danie van Tonder felt becalmed through the first four holes of the final round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Friday, but he showed his ever-growing maturity as he held his round together and posted a bogey-free 68 to win the Sunshine Tour’s second Rise Up Series event by three strokes.

Van Tonder started the final day tied for the lead with in-form Martin Rohwer and rising star Jayden Schaper, but they fell away and his greatest challenge came from the experienced Neil Schietekat, who birdied three holes in succession from the second to briefly move into a one-shot lead on eight-under-par.

The 29-year-old Van Tonder, from The Els Club Copperleaf, even had to contend with hitting into the water on the par-five second hole. He managed to scramble his way up-and-down for a par and his patience started paying off once he birdied the par-four fifth.

He gained another shot on the seventh and birdies on the two par-fives on the back nine saw him saunter to victory as Schietekat (69) finished on eight-under, tied for second along with Adilson da Silva (67) and George Coetzee (68).

“I had to be patient because I made a slow start and hit it in the water on the second but managed to get up-and-down for par. But sometimes it’s just your week, to be honest I felt I played good golf the whole week, I was consistent and I was confident in my game. I kept the same aggression as the first two rounds but just made sure I missed in the right place.

“If you hit the ball well and putt well then this is the sort of course you will do well on, if you hit it straight then the course will give you a few birdies because the greens are so quick and true. And it feels special because of putting in all the hard work during Lockdown, getting those callouses back on my hands, gyming and training hard,” Van Tonder said after his fourth Sunshine Tour triumph.

Veteran Da Silva produced some marvellous golf to climb into a share of second, birdieing the 16^th and 18^th holes, both par-fours, to post a 67, joint best round of the day with Tristen Strydom, who lifted himself into a tie for 13^th.

The 19-year-old Schaper endured a chastening day as he went after his first professional title, slumping to a three-over-par 75 to finish in a share of sixth along with Rohwer. Schaper started bogey-bogey and this marvellous prospect will have learnt much from being in the final group. Deon Germishuys (68), Luke Brown (69), Louis Albertse (72), Darren Fichardt (73) and Jaco Ahlers (74) were the other golfers to finish tied for sixth on four-under, while Dylan Mostert was alone in fifth after an excellent 68 lifted him to six-under.

A top-class season resulted in a handful of trophies for Quinton de Kock at the Cricket South Africa Awards over the weekend, and the wicketkeeper/batsman said he is approaching his game with a new maturity that befits his evolution into one of the senior players.

“I think I’ve slowly grown up and I’m being more mature about the game now, being more clever in the way I do things and prepare. I’m going to keep trying to learn and hopefully become even better. I don’t know as much as guys like AB and Hash, they are true geniuses and they teach me.

“I’m really focusing on my batting because in the next couple of years we’re going to have to start replacing some senior batsmen and I will have a more senior role. Sometimes you just need to do things yourself and I think I’m a fairly fast learner. Sometimes it’s all about trying to read what the bowler is trying to do or reading the situation,” De Kock said after he was named the overall Cricketer of the Year.

“To get all these individual accolades is nice, it feels good, but being able to just change the momentum or do something to keep the momentum for your team is the ultimate.”

The ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year is now off to England to try and help the Proteas to Champions Trophy glory. Although South Africa go into the tournament as the number one ranked side, suggesting they have the inside lane to success, De Kock downplayed expectations.

“We have a lot of backing at every ICC tournament, it seems whenever we go into a big tournament we’re always the favourites, but we don’t want to say too much about that. We don’t want to be the favourites, we just want to go and do our best, take it game-by-game,” De Kock said.

In addition to the main award, De Kock was also named Test Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year, was honoured by his peers by being named SA Players’ Player of the Year and by the fans as the SA Fans Player of the Year.

De Kock scored 761 Test runs last season at an average of 54.35 and 805 ODI runs at an average of 50.31 and a strike-rate of 115.