Ken Borland

KEMPTON PARK, Ekurhuleni – Buying confidence is a bit like trying to find a shortcut to experience, but the brilliant golf Casandra Alexander produced on Saturday to win the Absa Ladies Invitational at Serengeti Estates has ensured she will approach the next two months cock-a-hoop.

Playing what she described as “flawless golf”, Alexander fired a superb six-under-par 66 on Saturday to finish on 12-under-par overall and win the R1.2 million Absa Ladies Invitational by four strokes.

The 24-year-old had begun the final day tied for the lead with fellow South African Kiera Floyd, but Alexander went out in 34 before a brilliant back nine saw her collect an eagle and two birdies to romp to victory.

While Floyd struggled to a 77 on Saturday and finished 11 strokes behind, Alexander’s closest challenger was Spaniard Harang Lee, who also shot a 66 to finish on eight-under-par.

“It was definitely very close to flawless golf, I played unbelievably well and I am really happy,” Alexander said after her fifth Sunshine Ladies Tour title. “I had one or two drops early on which was maybe a bit of nerves, but I must have had 10 15-foot putts and I just couldn’t miss the first few.

“So I just tried to give myself birdie opportunities and I did manage to sink a few more. I played smart, but still aggressively and had a hot putter. Everything was solid, I hot my irons really well.”

Next week Alexander will defend her Jabra Ladies Classic title at Glendower, and then follows six consecutive weeks of European Tour action, including two co-sanctioned events in South Africa.

“I’m going to take a lot of confidence into Glendower, I’m hitting the ball well and that is a ball-striker’s course. And then it’s the two co-sanctioned events. I have a lot of events coming up, eight weeks in a row, and hopefully I can hit the ball even better and make more putts. I will carry this win with me,” Alexander said.

Her eagle on the 483m par-five 11^th came after a superb four-iron over the flag.

“I kept missing my drives slightly left, so I decided to hit a little cut off the tee and hit an unbelievable drive. I then hit a grip-down four-iron 185 metres into the wind, another little cut, and I hit it flush straight at the pin. I told it to sit down and it pitched five metres behind, leaving me with a 15-foot putt for eagle.

“That kind of separated myself, allowed the nerves to settle. I just played smart from there, I didn’t need to do anything crazy. I held things together well, it was all really tidy and I had two lip-outs in the last three holes,” Alexander said.

The Johannesburger backed up her eagle with birdies at the 12^th and 15tgh holes, and then her challengers were spent.

South Africa’s Cara Gorlei also shot a 66 to finish third on five-under-par, with compatriot Stacy Bregman fourth on four-under after a 69.

For two weekends in a row, the Stormers have looked down and out on the road but have shown the same remarkable resilience to avoid defeat and keep themselves very much in contention to win the South African Shield in the United Rugby Championship.

Last weekend in Pretoria, they were 26-18 down against the Bulls with just 12 minutes left, but the Stormers scored two brilliant breakaway tries at the death to win 30-26. This weekend, they were trailing 19-3 after 51 minutes and their scrum was getting mangled against the Sharks in Durban, but they fought back to snatch a 22-22 draw.

Those seven away points have lifted the Stormers to 12^th place on the log with 14 points, just two behind the 10^th-placed Sharks.

“You’ve got to be quite resilient to be a Stormers player these days and these players have obviously got bucket-loads of that,” Dobson beamed after their latest escape. “Things went for us … I thought we were dead, buried and finished.

“We conceded 18 penalties, seven of them at the scrum. I’m not sure what era of Western Province rugby would ever have seen that sort of count before.

“To get seven points away from home these last two weeks is really good, especially when you play as poorly as we did today. That was probably our worst performance of the URC.

“But I’m really very happy, it proves the guys are tight, they are showing that fight. If we keep this group together, we could be a reasonable team. Just give us some time,” Dobson said.

The Stormers coach seemed to acknowledge that his side had been outplayed and that, on a normal day, they would have suffered defeat.

“It was not a great game from us, we lacked organisation and control and that slowed our game down, until we decided to speed things up a bit in the second half. But our game-management was poor.

“The truth is we were lucky. The Sharks were not at their full pomp, but they had enough chances to finish us. But we defended their maul well,” Dobson said.

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.