Central Gauteng cool under pressure at 54th SA IPT
Central Gauteng turned hot in the cold, windy conditions at Westlake Golf Club to emerge as the front runner at the 54th South African Inter-Provincial on Tuesday.
Buoyed by their first round victory against local favourites Western Province, Central Gauteng fought bravely in the blustery North-Easterly wind to down Southern Cape after the teams tied 2-all in the Foursomes.
Central’s young stars dug deep on the back nine of the Cape Course and skipper Louis Taylor rallied to halve his match against Nicholas Mitchell to put an exclamation mark on a 7-5 victory.
“This was a much tighter match than the score line indicates,” said manager, Jaco du Plessis.
“At one stage we were down in all our Foursomes matches, but the guys did exceptionally well to pull it back and take is into the Singles all square.
“After Andy (Dill) halved the first Single against Ivan Williams, we won the next four games, but Southern Cape came back at us with two wins. Louis was four down at the turn, but he played superbly down the straight to get us that vital half point against Nicholas.
“The youngsters have really excelled over the last two days and our bottom order has done a great job of getting the early points for us and take the pressure off.”
Smarting after their first round loss to Central Gauteng, Western Province came out guns blazing to claim a 3-1 lead in the Foursomes. However, the Ekurhuleni squad mounted a serious assault in the Singles and it was touch and go before Province emerged from the titanic battle with a 7-5 win.
Ekurhuleni won the first two singles, but Province recovered quickly to take the next three games and pull 6-3 clear. Then Ekurhuleni’s Triston Strydom beat Altin van der Merwe to take the score to 6-4.
It was down to Gerlou Roux and Drew Denyer, both all square coming down the final hole, to lock down the victory for Province.
Roux made a spectacular up-and-down at the 17th to stay all square with Paul Boshoff and the players halved the 18th in pars. Denyer lost the 17th, but he matched NJ Arnoldi shot for shot to halve the 18th.
“It was really tight out there, but the guys really pulled together to win this one and turn things around for us,” said Province captain Werner Theart.
“We just need to keep that fighting spirit going against Southern Cape on Wednesday.”
The tussle between Boland and Gauteng North ended a tie at 6-all, leaving the defending champions vulnerable and under pressure.
For the full second round results, click HERE
Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association.