South African Branden Grace played with admirable calm to win his first European Tour title when he won the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club by one stroke with a final round of level-par 72.
Grace, playing his 50th European Tour event, finished on 17-under-par, one stroke ahead of Briton Jamie Elson, who catapulted himself into second place with an outstanding nine-under-par 63.
The 23-year-old Grace began the final round with a three-stroke lead over compatriot George Coetzee and Briton Richard Finch. They were all playing in the final three-ball after weather delays on the first three days of the 1.3 million euro co-sanctioned event.
But Finch crashed to a six-over-par 78, three-putting three times on the front nine, to end nine shots off the pace.
Coetzee closed to within two shots of the lead with birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes, but the burly South African faded on the back nine after a double-bogey on the par-four 13th when he hooked his approach shot into the water. The world number 80 finished with a 75 to close on 11-under-par in a tie for 14th.
Grace, a former member of the Ernie Els Foundation, put together nine straight pars on the back nine to hold off Elson and six golfers who finished in a tie for third on 14-under – Scots David Drysdale and Marc Warren, and South Africans Jaco van Zyl, Trevor Fisher junior, Dawie van der Walt and Michiel Bothma, his cousin.
The pressure of leading seemed to affect Grace at the start of the final round as he bogeyed the par-three second hole. But a wonderful approach shot to within eight feet on the 389-metre par-four ninth hole set up a birdie that seemed to settle the former South African amateur strokeplay champion.
“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I stuck to my game-plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace told reporters after his triumph, which earned him 206 050 euro.
Grace’s back nine was the epitome of solid golf under pressure as he made no mistakes off the tee and was superb with his irons. The margin of victory would have been greater if Grace had not narrowly missed a number of birdie putts.
“The opportunities were there, but I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances. I struggled to get the lines exactly right, the greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away.
“Obviously it’s awesome to win, it’s been coming a long time and it’s really nice to have the first win back home. The hard work has paid off and my consistency has paid off,” Grace, who earlier this week won the Gary Player Trophy for best stroke average on the Sunshine Tour, said.

England’s Robert Rock is feeling more and more comfortable in South Africa and also with his recent positions at the top of leaderboards around the world.

All of which makes his current position atop the Joburg Open leaderboard – on 11-under-par after a second-round 67 – all the more ominous for the rest of the field in the co-sanctioned European Tour/Sunshine Tour event.

Rock had to complete his last three holes of his weather-interrupted first round from 6.45am and promptly birdied 17 and 18 to complete a marvellous 65 on the tougher East Course. After a short break and some breakfast, the 34-year-old began his second round and almost immediately went into the lead with an eagle on the par-five second hole. Three birdies in a row from the 13th then sealed his position at the top, one shot ahead of South Africans Branden Grace and Jbe’ Kruger.

Rock has been coming to South Africa for the co-sanctioned events for the last eight years and has been steadily improving his results.

“When you start to play the same tournaments at the same venues, you can start planning your shots into the greens because you’re familiar with the putts, you start to remember the lines, and it’s a big help.

“They’re always good courses when you play tournaments in South Africa and that’s what interests me, I prefer that to massive prizefunds,” Rock said.

The Belfry-based golfer has also won more than 2.3 million euro in the last three years, winning the Italian Open last year and then finishing eighth in the lucrative, season-ending Dubai World Championship.

“I played some of my best golf in Dubai to finish eighth in a great field and my game started to turn around last year, especially my iron play. I also started putting well – I can be a bit hit-and-miss with the putting.

“So I hoped I would start this year where I left off last year and it was similar. When I saw I was leading, it did not bother me too much, whereas normally I would be thinking ‘what do I do now?’ But I led basically all the way through in Italy and it feels better to be in that position now,” Rock said.

After a 4.30am wake-up call on Friday, Rock at least knows he’ll be going off at a far more civilised hour when he starts his third round.

“I don’t like those 4.30 alarms, the aim is to play your way out of those. But I guess weather delays are part of the scene this time of the year over here …

“I played really well in the Pro-Am, so I was hopeful. I then had a great round on the harder course to shoot seven-under, but I didn’t play as well today, but managed to get a score.

“My whole game is good – I drove every fairway, bar one; I hit most if not all of the greens and I hit some irons to tap-in length. It’s been a stress-free couple of rounds, what more could I wish for?” Rock said.

Now that he knows how, Rock could go all the way and claim his second European Tour title in seven months.

For two South Africans, their tactic of not thinking about shooting low bore fruit on Thursday as they positioned themselves up with the leaders after the first round of the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.

Desvonde Botes produced the round of the day with a fabulous seven-under-par 65 on the tougher East Course to claim second place behind leaders Damian McGrane and Jamie Elson, who both shot 63s on the West Course, which translates to eight-under-par.

George Coetzee went out in the morning and laid a marker with a fine round of six-under-par 65 on the par-71 West Course.

“I played very nicely today, bogey-free and with five birdies and an eagle at the last,” Botes said. “I just tried not to think too much about posting a score. I just concentrated on having fun and hitting every shot as good as possible.”

And the Pretoria-based Coetzee had the same mantra, although for different reasons as he was under pressure to shoot low first up on the easier West Course.

“It’s tough to start on that course because you know you have to come out the blocks quickly and score well. You’re under pressure to shoot low quickly. I just had to tell myself not to worry about the score and not try to force birdies. I had to just keep the ball in play and try and pick up birdies on the par-fives. And it worked because I didn’t have a five on my card,” Coetzee said after his bogey-free round.

Botes took a lot of confidence from his previous tournaments at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington, specifically on the East Course, where he became the youngest ever winner of the SA Amateur title, beating Springbok Barry Sundelson in 1991 and becoming the youngest ever winner at 16 years and five months, 20 days younger than the previous record-holder, Ernie Els.

“As an amateur, I used to shoot rounds of around 65 here, but that’s the first time I’ve done as well as a pro. I won the SA Amateur here in 1991, on the East Course, beating Barry Sundelson, and we play here more or less every year, it’s such a great course.

“I’ve always enjoyed the East Course more, but there are a lot of scoring opportunities on the West Course. I just need to keep my head and make sure I do well tomorrow as well,” Botes said.

For Coetzee, the key on Friday is keeping himself from getting in his own way.

“At the moment, it’s impossible for me to keep out of my own head. I’m going to see the psychologist tomorrow. Last week it bothered me a lot – I’d be on my way to a reasonably good score, but then I’d get in my own way and fall back to an average score,” Coetzee said.

The 25-year-old finished in a tie for 29th on 14-under at the Africa Open, after rounds of 71-68-69-70, which was reasonable but nothing spectacular in the wake of Louis Oosthuizen’s winning score of 27-under, the second-lowest in the history of the European Tour. The record-holder is Els, who won the Johnnie Walker Classic at Lake Karrinyup in 2003 with a score of 29-under-par.

The 37-year-old Botes will be fancying his chances of going very low in the second round as well as he ended the first round in the most spectacular fashion, with a birdie on the 17th and an eagle on the par-five 18th hole.

The momentum is certainly with the tall Hartebeestpoort golfer.

South Africa’s Retief Goosen believes the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club will be a tricky test for the 210 golfers teeing it up in the Joburg Open starting on Thursday.

“The course is really long and very narrow and there’s a tough wind that blows across the whole course, which makes it tricky. The course is in great shape, but it will rain, it’s just a question of when.

“Down by the river, it’s very wet and you can hardly find a dry spot on the fairways, so more rain could be a problem,” Goosen warned on Wednesday.

The Goose said his initial aim in 2012 was to just recapture his best form after a back problem plagued him in 2011.

“My back is okay right now but I don’t know if I can win, I hope so! My last two tournaments went pretty well, just my putting let me down in the last rounds.

“Since the South Africa Open in November I’ve been playing nicely. Basically since my back got better, I’ve been able to practise better, to improve my game and make an impact. It’s from practising that you develop confidence and you have to have confidence to have feel.

“I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, but it will be nice to have a chance to win,” Goosen said.

The two-time US Open champion said he has been receiving expert advice on his back problem.

“From the British Open it was a nightmare. I pulled out of a lot of tournaments and I couldn’t practice. I took a few months out because of my back, a couple of doctors suggested surgery, but I’m going to leave that as long as I can. I’m doing more physio and yoga to see if I can get the disk under control,” Goosen said.