Ken Borland

Thriston Lawrence was only nine years old at the time, but he remembers when Tiger Woods won the Open Championship at St Andrews in 2005 that the greatest golfer of his generation said before the Major that the key to winning would be not hitting any of the bunkers at the home of golf.

The 24-year-old South African will follow the same tactic when he tees it up for the 150^th edition of the great tournament on the legendary course, having qualified for the Open thanks to his breakthrough victory at the Joburg Open at Randpark Golf Club on Saturday.

The top three previously unqualified finishers at the Joburg Open gain berths to the Open Championship, with Lawrence leading the way thanks to being given the title in the rain-shortened event due to his four-stroke lead after 36 holes. Compatriot Zander Lombard is also off to St Andrews in July after finishing second, with Englishman Ashley Chesters taking the last qualifying spot as he shared third place with South African Shaun Norris, who has already qualified.

“It’s going to be a lifelong dream come true because I’ve never played in a Major and for my first one ever to be at St Andrew’s, and the 150^th celebration, is going to be unbelievable,” Lawrence said.

“I’m so excited, I can’t wait for July. It’s going to be the best feeling in the world to play my first Major at the home of golf.

“I have fond memories of watching on TV and Tiger Woods, when he won at St Andrews, saying his plan would be to avoid all the bunkers. He was able to not hit a single bunker, which obviously I’ll try to do as well.

“Louis Oosthuizen’s win in 2010 was also very special. So I have a lot of memories of the Open,” Lawrence said.

Lombard was no doubt disappointed that the Joburg Open final round on Saturday was washed out because he would have backed himself to catch his younger countryman, but a spot in the Open Championship was a great consolation prize for the 26-year-old.

“It’s a pity this tournament finished the way it did, but to have the opportunity to play in the 150^th Open and at the home of golf is incredible, you can’t dream of anything bigger. And I’ve played well on that St Andrews course before … ” Lombard said.

Thriston Lawrence was still shaking with excitement and the release of nervous tension half-an-hour after being told he was the winner of the weather-disrupted Joburg Open at Randpark Golf Club on Saturday, giving the 24-year-old South African a life-changing first international title.

Saturday was meant to be the final round of the co-sanctioned tournament with the DP World (formerly European) Tour, after the organisers decided to cut the event to 54 holes due to the terrible weather and the turmoil caused by travel restrictions overseas due to the announcement of a new Covid variant discovered in South Africa.

But the thundershowers returned just after midday and did not let-up in time to avoid the tournament being called off at 3pm. With the second round first needing to be completed on Saturday morning, none of the 69 golfers who made the cut were able to complete their third round.

The final placings were therefore decided based on the completed second-round scores and Lawrence, who had bogeyed the first hole and parred the second just before play stopped, was declared the winner by virtue of his four-shot lead over Zander Lombard after back-to-back 65s.

“I’m still shaking and it hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Lawrence said after receiving the crystal trophy. “It’s always been a goal of mine to win on the European Tour, but I didn’t see it coming so quickly and you never think it would come out like this.

“But the whole week has been strange weather and my mentality was just to finish the tournament. It wasn’t nice waiting today because you hear a lot of talk about what might or might not happen.

“But I’m just thankful for the way it turned out, it’s a life-changing moment and a lot of things are going to change in my schedule. It’s an unbelievable feeling. Being me a week ago to now is two worlds apart.

“You want to see yourself up there winning tournaments, but there have been a lot of knocks in the last year-and-a-half and it’s been tough,” Lawrence said.

The winner of one previous Sunshine Tour event – the 2019 Vodacom Origins Stellenbosch – was a trifle disappointed to not have his winning moment on the 18^th green, but even that did not stop his perpetual smile.

“I would have liked to get the win on the 18^th, have a winning putt, so it was not the perfect way to finish,” Lawrence said.

“But I played unbelievable golf over the last two days to take a four-shot lead into the weekend.

“Then the tournament was cut short amid a lot of confusion. The weather prediction was actually fine for today with a zero percent chance of lightning. But that only lasted 45 minutes.

“But I just stayed patient and I will take a lot of confidence from this win. And I don’t have to worry about invites anymore,” the Nelspruit golfer said.

Thriston Lawrence must be tired of all his recent misfortune on the European tour and, even though he was in fine form on six-under-par on Thursday, even his great first round of the Joburg Open was then halted by an untimely thunderstorm at Randpark Golf Club.

Lawrence was in a share of the lead with Spain’s Angel Hidalgo on the ninth hole, his last, when play was suspended due to lightning at 5.05pm. Little more than half-an-hour later, the first round of the co-sanctioned event was officially called off for the day.

While frustrated that he couldn’t quite complete a morale-boosting round, the 24-year-old will be delighted with his consistent play after a nasty run of three successive missed cuts and a DQ in his last four European tour events.

Lawrence started on the 10^th at Firethorn and began birdie-bogey, but finished his opening round strongly with an eagle on the 14^th and a birdie on the par-three 17^th. The Mpumalanga product then birdied the par-five fourth hole, before the highlight of his round, holing his second for eagle on the sixth hole.

Hidalgo, playing on the main European tour for the first time, also started on the 10^th and a brilliant run of birdie-birdie-eagle from the 12^th saw him race to four-under-par after five holes. He dropped a shot on 15, but two more birdies on 16 and 18 undid the damage before the turn. Although the 23-year-old bogeyed the first, further birdies on the sixth and ninth holes gave him an excellent 65.

Englishman Ashley Chesters is alone in third on five-under-par 66 and seven golfers, including South African stars Dylan Frittelli and Zander Lombard, are on 67.

Frittelli is the obvious main threat to the leaders and the favourite of the bookmakers after the first round. He looked set for the lead when he raced to five-under-par with four holes to play, but the trickery of the par-three 17^th hole then tripped him up, a bogey-four dropping him back to four-under-par.

The likes of leading international competitors Shaun Norris (68), Ross Fisher (68) and Justin Harding (69) also enjoyed the opening day of the new DP World Tour season, but Wilco Nienaber and Brandon Stone battled to master the vagaries of the wind and shot level-par 71s.