Ken Borland

KHOLWANE (Eswatini) – Golf can be a cruel mistress and is even tougher when a course comprises two nines that are totally different in style, but Jason Roets has handled the challenges of the Nkonyeni Lodge and Golf Estate with aplomb as he goes into the final round of the FNB Eswatini Challenge with a one-stroke lead.

Roets fired a marvellous bogey-free six-under-par 66 in Friday’s second round to go to 11-under-par for the tournament. The Dainfern golfer dropped just one shot in the first round, sharing the lead with Combrinck Smit and Stephen Ferreira, so it is fair to say he has mastered the 18-hole combination of nine holes on the Bushveld Golf Course and nine on the Golden Eagle Links.

Roets started his round on Friday on the 10^th, the Bushveld nine, and went out in four-under, and then finished his round wonderfully with birdies on the seventh and ninth holes, both par-fours, as he took his score to six-under over the first two days on the front nine links.

“It was a very nice day, any time you go bogey-free you know you’ve played well,” Roets said. “I like both nines, it’s a really unique challenge to have a whole new set-up after halfway.

“On seven I hit a good drive, hit my second to 25 feet and made a really nice putt. On the short ninth, I took driver and was slightly left of the green, but I hit a great shot to about two feet,” Roets said.

The 31-year-old Roets is one stroke clear of former SA Open winner Danie van Tonder, who showed a return to something approaching his best form with a 66 on Friday, his lowest round this season. He had one bogey on each nine, but eagled the par-five eighth and collected six birdies.

Other contenders for the title on Saturday are Keenan Davidse (68) and Neil Schietekat (69) on seven-under, while Lyle Rowe fired a 67 to be five strokes back on six-under-par.

Smit could only shoot level-par 72 on Friday and is in the tie for sixth on five-under, while Ferreira had three bogeys on the front nine and a seven on the par-five 15^th in a 74 that leaves him eight shots behind.

Roets has been on the Sunshine Tour since 2020/21 and is without a victory after 68 tournaments. Other than contending strongly on the Blue Label Development Tour, the former University of North Texas golfer also has three top-10 finishes on the Sunshine Tour proper. But this season has been his best, as he currently sits 32^nd on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.

“I’ve played really nicely this year, just a couple of rounds have let me down. So it’s nice to capitalise on good golf. Obviously I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about my first win, but I’m just going to try hard to stay in the moment in the final round, take it shot-for-shot with 100% commitment,” Roets said.

The third round of a golf tournament – colloquially known as ‘Moving Day’ – is often about building a healthy lead heading into the final round, but for Max Homa, Saturday at the Gary Player Country Club was all about consolidation and the world number eight has fought off numerous challengers to end the penultimate day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge with a one-stroke lead.

Beginning the third round tied for the lead with Matthieu Pavon, Homa dropped just one stroke on Saturday and that was the key to his pre-eminent position heading into the final round. What he described as a “squirrelly” start saw the American bogey the par-three fourth hole, but he immediately birdied the fifth to cut Pavon’s lead back to one shot.

The key moment of the day came on the par-five 10^th as Homa holed his bunker shot for eagle. Another birdie for the 32-year-old on the next par-five, the 14^th, ensured he would lead alone after Pavon dropped shots on 15 and 16.

Homa posted a three-under-par 69 on Saturday to finish on 13-under overall, with Pavon’s 70 leaving him on 12-under. Nicolai Hojgaard’s 69, containing three bogeys as well as six birdies, lifted him to 11-under-par with Thorbjorn Olesen, whose only bogey came on the 16^th, as he also shot 69.

“I didn’t swing so well to start, it was all a bit scrappy, but I hit the ball really well for the last 10 holes, I just didn’t sink anything,” Homa said after his round. “It felt like I was hitting good shots but not capitalising, things weren’t going my way before that nice bunker shot on 10, that was a lovely boost.

“I gave myself a lot of looks today and the plan tomorrow is to make a few more putts. It’s a dream and an honour just to have the opportunity to win this tournament, which has a tremendous history. Every day we walk past the winners’ plaques at the ninth green, it’s an impressive list and I would love to add my name to that legacy. All I can do is put myself in the best position to do that,” Homa said.

Pavon was okay with his position after a boiling hot, gruelling day at Sun City, nestled like a kiln between the Pilanesberg mountains. Before his late bogeys on the 15^th and 16^th holes, the Frenchman had been four-under for his round, not bad going in the testing conditions with the wind also having picked up.

“It was nice to start well with three birdies in the first seven holes, but overall it was a real grind today. It was hard, the pins are in tricky places and it was all about managing your game. It was also a very long day – five-and-a-half hours, which is too long in that heat and intensity, you drain a lot of energy.

“It was good to walk away with two pars, that was a very solid finish. It’s always nice having won a few weeks ago [the Spanish Open on October 15], so my confidence is pretty high and my game feels good,” Pavon said.

The chances of a South African winner, for the first time since Branden Grace in 2017, seem to be drying up with Hennie du Plessis still the leading local, but on five-under, eight shots off the lead. Three birdies in the first five holes on Saturday were considerable hops up the leaderboard, but he then slumped back with five bogeys leaving him with a 74.

Dan Bradbury, whose rapid rise from nowhere to prominence is one of the stories of the season, had a day of astronomical ups and downs, a bogey at the last leaving him on 10-under-par in fifth place.

On the 195m, par-three foirth, he was inches away from claiming a hole-in-one, but he followed up that birdie with another one on the fifth. The Joburg Open winner went out in two-under 34 after a bogey on the par-four eighth and a birdie on the par-five ninth.

The back nine was an epic rollercoaster for the Englishman. He left his birdie putt on the par-five 11^th just short and then bogeyed the par-three 12^th. He missed another birdie opportunity on the par-fibe 14^th with a terrible close-range miss, but them made a marvellous 25ft putt for par on 15, followed by a massive 34-footer for birdie on the 16^th.

Like many others, he then found himself in trouble on the 18^th, the toughest hole in the third round, when he missed the green right and chipped out of the rough, 17 feet past the flag, failing to make the par-putt.

PORT EDWARD, KwaZulu-Natal – A change of coach for MJ Viljoen obviously brought dividends on Thursday as the 27-year-old surged to the top of the leaderboard in the SunBet Challenge hosted by Wild Coast Sun, shooting a six-under-par 64 to go into the final round with a one-stroke lead at the Wild Coast Country Club.

Viljoen started his second round on the 10^th hole and blazed his way to the turn in just 29 strokes, collecting six birdies, including three in a row from the 16^th. Although the strengthening of the wind meant his score of six-under stayed where it was on his inward nine due to one bogey, on the par-three sixth, being cancelled out by a birdie on the par-five seventh, the Serengeti Golf Estate representative had still done enough to hold off the challenge of Keenan Davidse.

Viljoen is on 11-under-par for the tournament, while Davidse had a more up-and-down day, with five birdies, three bogies and an eagle on the par-five 16^th, leaving with him an excellent 66 that lifted him to 10-under overall.

“I was solid all day and I didn’t make mistakes. But I enjoyed my front nine a lot today, I was just hitting the ball so nicely and I felt in such control of things,” Viljoen said. “And then I got a bit excited and the wind got up on my back nine and put me on the back foot a bit.

“But I’ve been struggling for a couple of years now and I just had to make a change last week because I was putting myself under so much pressure. So I worked with a different coach in Dougie Wood, just for a different perspective.

“The change obviously paid off today so I will stick with it. How I felt on the golf course was more favourable,” Viljoen said.

Viljoen, who won his only Sunshine Tour title at the Sun Fish River Challenge in 2017, said his approach in Friday’s final round will be to try and replicate his outstanding form on holes 10 to 18 on Thursday.

“I was just focused on not making any mistakes, I hit the ball good and my putting and chipping were good too. So I will go out in the final round and try do what I did on the first two days.

“The big thing is I’m not worried about the outcome because I know I’ve improved, I’ve got something out of the last couple of weeks, and that’s more than enough for me. That gives me a head start, I reckon,” Viljoen said.

Apart from Davidse, Martin Vorster and Jaco Ahlers are also chasing hard on nine-under-par after they both shot 65s on Thursday, and Madalitso Muthiya (68), Heinrich Bruiners (67), Casey Jarvis (66) and Christiaan Burke (65) are just three strokes back on eight-under.

Overnight leader Jacques Blaauw had a tough time on Thursday and just could not get going, 16 pars and two bogies leaving him with a 72 that saw him slip down to six-under-par and a tie for 13^th.

IRENE, City of Tshwane – Sunshine Tour rookie Ryan van Velzen roared to a marvellous eight-under-par 64 at Irene Country Club on Friday to claim a one-stroke lead after the first round of the KitKat Group ProAm, the R1 million tournament being held for the second time after flooding washed out the tournament in February.

The 21-year-old Van Velzen, playing just his fifth Sunshine Tour event, was particularly rampant on the par-fours, picking up six of his eight birdies there, to go with birdies on the par-five 10^th and 17^th holes. It was also a bogey-free round for the Benoni golfer, who won his card from the Big Easy Tour in January.

“I’m really happy and I played really nicely, hitting the ball good and close and making the putts,” Van Velzen said after racing past his previous best Tour round of 68.

“I drove the ball straight most of the day, I didn’t miss many fairways and my iron play was really good. I was surprised how good the greens were after all the rain and flooding earlier in the year.

“The course is in really good shape and you have to hit it straight off the tee because of all the trees. And the greens were pretty quick so you didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the hole,” Van Velzen said.

The former GolfRSA squad member was on the right side of most things on Friday, including an extraordinary tussle for top spot on the leaderboard that he eventually won.

Dylan Mostert finished just one stroke back after a brilliant 65, converting a great start after he was three-under through five holes.

Merrick Bremner, Ockie Strydom and JJ Senekal made the early running with their five-under-par 67s, but endured the frustration of watching the leading duo sweep past them in the afternoon, as well as the in-form Louis Albertse, Malcolm Mitchell and Keagan Thomas, who all shot 66s.

Rourke van der Spuy, who drank from the champagne bottle a week ago when he won the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City, was also part of the bottleneck at the top as he started on the 10^th tee and moved to four-under-par after his birdie on the third hole. But the aggressive 32-year-old did not quite have the finish he intended as he then bogeyed the par-four sixth and made pars the rest of the way in to finish with a 69.