Ken Borland

SUN CITY, North-West – It took a little while for Rourke van der Spuy to warm up, but he was loving the greens on the back nine as he shot a one-under-par 71 on Thursday to claim a one-stroke lead after the second round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City at Gary Player Country Club.

The 32-year-old Van der Spuy will be heading into Friday’s final round on five-under-par for the tournament, one clear of a strong quartet of contenders in Hennie Otto (69), Louis de Jager (68), Callum Mowat (73) and Kyle Barker (70).

Van der Spuy went into the second round in second place, one shot behind Mowat, and, teeing off at 8am, he made seven straight pars before a double-bogey at the par-four eighth was a frustrating blow.

“The big thing about teeing off early in the morning at Sun City is the considerable temperature difference compared to later in the day,” Van der Spuy said.

“The sun rises at 7am but it only really gets warm around 9-10 o’clock. It just takes a while for the body to warm up and get loose, and of course the ball goes much further when it’s warmer.

“So it’s just a case of getting through the first nine holes and I was just pleased to be bogey-free after seven holes, but then the double-bogey six was a punch in the gut,” Van der Spuy said.

But as the sun rose above the Pilanesberg mountains and warmed both the course and the competitors, the Durban-born golfer warmed to his task with back-to-back birdies around the turn and then two more sandwiching a bogey at the 15^th.

“I was very happy to recover with those two birdies straight after the double-drop and I was definitely more comfortable on the back nine,” Van der Spuy said.

“It was also a good day on the greens, I converted a few outside chances to keep the round going. Credit to my caddy, Jacob Lekgotho, who I called in three times on the back nine and he was spot-on with his lines.

“Jakes has been the caddy master at Sun City so he’s as comfortable around Gary Player Country Club as I am and those putts were real momentum-keepers,” Van der Spuy said.

The Durban Country Club representative won on his rookie year on tour at the 2015 Fish River Sun Challenge and then again, three years later, at the Mopani Redpath Zambia Open. But as surely as the years have passed, so too has Van der Spuy’s game evolved and he said the final round will be about setting and achieving a target he and his coach set for himself.

“We will see how everyone finishes and then create a game-plan from there. The key is we will be looking at a score and not the rest of the field.

“It’s been an 18-month process and it’s something I now trust to get the job done in a final round. As you mature and go through the ups-and-downs of a golf career, your game evolves as you do as a person.

“I’m definitely a different player now than I was when I won those tournaments three years apart. But I trust the golfer I am,” Van der Spuy said.

The experienced duo of Otto and De Jager were both in fine form on Thursday, having 11 birdies between them, and they will surely put Van der Spuy to the test in Friday’s final round.

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Louis Albertse will remember with fondness the first three holes of the Royal Harare Golf Club as he birdied them all en route to a superb seven-under-par 65 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the FBC Zimbabwe Open on Thursday.

The Dundee Golf Club representative also birdied holes five through seven, giving him a tremendous start of six birdies in his first seven holes. But the back nine of the parkland course In Zimbabwe’s capital did bite back a bit, with Albertse dropping shots at the 10th and 16th holes.

But the birdies also kept coming, with the 25-year-old making a four at the par-five 12th hole, a three at the 14th and then finishing in style with another birdie at the par-four 18th.

Herman Loubser, the winner of the Lombard Insurance Classic last weekend at Arabella, shot a 66 at nearby Chapman Golf Club, the other course being used for an historic tournament that unfortunately could not be played for the last three years,  to claim second place on the first day of one of the premier African tournaments on the Sunshine Tour schedule.

Keagan Thomas and Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya were in third place, having shot five-under-par 67s at Royal Harare. The 121-year-old course was kinder to them on the back nine than it was to Albertse, with both Thomas and Muthiya coming home in just 33 strokes.

Albert Venter, Luca Filippi and Ryan van Velzen were all on four-under-par on a congested leaderboard, 34 golfers shooting under-par just to show how exciting our young talent is in Southern Africa.

Albertse challenged strongly at Arabella last weekend after shooting 66 in the first round, but his last two rounds (73, 75) did not work out quite as he had planned.

But he is obviously a young man building on the confidence of a groundbreaking 2021/22 season on the Sunshine Tour in which he finished in the top 50 on the Luno Order of Merit for the first time in

his career, including a maiden victory in the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Mount Edgecombe.

JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng (23 October) – Louis Albertse notched his first Sunshine Tour title five weeks ago at Mount Edgecombe and is in prime position to add a second on Sunday after a top-class round of six-under-par 66 gave him a one-stroke lead after three days of the Blair Atholl Championship on Saturday.

Albertse’s remarkable round on a blustery day on one of the longest courses on tour included a double-bogey on the par-three 17^th, when he found the large greenside bunker, but that was the sandwich in a pair of birdies on 16 and 18.

An eagle on the par-five fifth gave the winner of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event at Mount Edgecombe some momentum and a pair of birdies took him to the turn on four-under for the day.

The 25-year-old from Dundee then birdied the next two holes as well, soaring up the leaderboard when the second-round frontrunners could not make much headway on a testing day.

“This is a long course, the wind was tricky and I didn’t always get it right, but tough conditions get me going and to shoot six-under was very pleasing,” Albertse said. “There are more scoring opportunities on the front, but the back nine is harder, there are a few really long par-fours and the wind got up. But I still played really nicely.

“It’s hard to get close when you’re hitting five or six irons in, so it helps when your putter gets hot and to have just 24 putts today was very nice.”

Anton Haig had three successive bogeys from the 15^th hole to shoot a level-par 72 and stay two shots back on seven-under, Rupert Kaminski also remaining on his second-round score.

Jayden Schaper was putting together a great round, six-under-par through 10 holes to take the lead, but the highly-rated youngster then suffered a meltdown, dropping five shots in the last four holes as he came home in 42, finishing the third round on five-under for the tournament.

Albertse is being pursued though by two hugely experienced golfers in Ulrich van den Berg and Trevor Fisher Junior, who are both just one stroke behind after shooting 68s on Saturday.

Van den Bergh is an eight-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, although it is more than seven years since he last took the honours, at Euphoria Golf Club, also in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.

Fisher Junior is in a good run of form with four consecutive top-20 finishes and is a nine-time winner on tour.

A dozen golfers are within four shots of the lead and the Blair Atholl Championship is set for a thrilling conclusion on Sunday.

But Albertse is already in the top-10 of the order of merit in a breakthrough season for the third-year pro, he is high on confidence and good in the wind.

“Winning before changes your frame of mind a bit, you know you can do it, you did it once so you can do it again. It frees up your game a bit and you give yourself more chances,” Albertse said.

Dylan Mostert was well-served by his irons as he claimed a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Betway Championship at Killarney Country Club on Wednesday, but he was quick to acknowledge he was favoured by being able to play the majority of his round in the afternoon.

The morning field who marked the return of Sunshine Tour professional golf in South Africa, with the first tournament of the Rise Up Series, were greeted by brutal conditions – freezing temperatures and a four-club wind that combined to make the greens play like ice-rinks. Level-par was the best score anyone in the morning field managed.

Come the afternoon, the sun began shining more brightly and the wind died down. Not that Killarney was playing easy then either, and Mostert’s three-under-par 67 was the best score of the day, one better than the 68s shot by Dylan Naidoo, Ruan Korb and Albert Venter.

Michael Hollick, Wallie Coetsee, Makhetha Mazibuko and Anton Haig were on one-under, while seasoned Sunshine Tour pros such as Keith Horne, Jaco Ahlers, Adilson da Silva, Danie van Tonder and Ulrich van den Berg were among the golfers who finished on level-par.

“I hit a lot of greens because as soon as you are far away from the holes here you don’t have much chance. And I only hit three or four Drivers, I used my irons to plot my way around. I have game-plans for both winds and if it blows the opposite away tomorrow I can probably use more Drivers. But you have to be really careful where you leave the ball as you have to be on the right side of the greens.

“And it was a helluva lot easier in the afternoon. I heard it was very cold in the morning and the greens were probably a lot firmer. It was a bit windy all day, but no more than a two-club wind this afternoon, so nothing overly bad. But it must have been really hard to stop the ball on the greens this morning. It will be a lot colder tomorrow when I play so I’m going to have to grind it out,” Mostert said after his round.

Venter had a share of the lead until a bogey at the ninth hole, his last, when he missed the green on the left and was left with no shot for par. But considering that it was the 24-year-old’s first ever Sunshine Tour round it was a top-class effort.

He started on the 10^th and made par and then immediately dispelled any nerves with a tremendous run of four successive birdies.

“For my first event I’m really happy with my day’s work because I had quite a few nerves. But I had a brilliant start, a really good tee-shot down 10 and then on 11 I holed my shot from the greenside bunker so that was a real boost of confidence. I just hit the ball well, got it close to the hole and made good putts. It was just a matter of planning every shot.

“I had a few bad breaks on my back nine and it’s a tight course, hitting fairways and greens is the key. And the greens were fast so you need to be close to the hole and make your two-putts. You have to figure out when to attack on greens like these, you can’t go for everything. Plus I had the better side of the draw. So I’m starting on the front nine tomorrow and I know I must not be over-aggressive,” Venter said.