Cubitt doubles it with Tshwane Junior Open win
Jack Cubitt won his second GolfRSA tournament of the year when he held on for a two-stroke win over SA No 1-ranked amateur Christiaan Maas and Nico Booysens in the Tshwane Junior Open at Silver Lakes Country Club.
What should have been a comfortable to march to victory ended up being a lot closer than he would have liked after the Umdoni Park golfer made two double bogeys on the back nine to see his lead whittled away.
“I was a bit nervous coming down the stretch because I had built up a five-shot lead with nine to play and before I knew it, the lead was down to one, with three holes to play,” Cubitt said.
By the time he reached the final hole, Cubitt knew he was in a tight tussle. What
the 18-year-old didn’t know was that, in the group ahead of him, Booysens had made a double bogey while Maas had made a bogey on the par-five 18th hole.
“I thought I needed to make birdie on the last, that’s why I hit driver,” he said. “Then I hit it into the hazard, so it’s fair to say that I made it a lot more stressful than it need have been.”
In the end, Cubitt made his par and signed for a round of 72 to follow his opening round of 3-under-par 69. The win was his second of the year after claiming the Nomads Coastal Order of Merit at Selborne in January, while in May, he was a key member of the KwaZulu-Natal team that won the Country Districts IPT Tournament at East London Golf Club.
Cubitt is certainly trending as a player to look out for, as he moves from the junior into the open amateur ranks.
“It’s awesome to end on a high note, as I turn 19 next week so this is my last junior tournament,” he said.
Final results
141 Jack Cubitt 69 72
143 Nico Booyens 72 71; Christiaan Maas 71 72
144 Caden Sanders 70 74
146 Aiden Leeb 76 70; Behn Heyns 71 75
147 Tristan Leonard 71 76
148 Nash de Klerk 77 71
149 Enzo Barbaglia 74 75; Pascal Gunther 74 75
150 Stefan Jacobs 78 72
151 Matt Walters 76 75; Michael Ferreira 75 76; Reagan Kraft 74 77
152 Matthew Dippenaar 79 73; Jonathan Wilsenach 78 74; Stefan Rudman 78 74
154 Grant Labuschagne 79 75; Tawriq Abrahams 79 75
155 Sean Tsipa 82 73; Divan Mostert 78 77
156 Danie Jooste 75 81
157 Peter Watt 79 78; Stefan Krüger 78 79; Luc Gavagnin 78 79
158 Jayden Derick Jacobs 82 76; Nathan Shuldt 81 77
159 Kael Kurt Strydom 82 77; JC Schutte 81 78; Adrian Fourie 76 83
160 Jacob Joseph 88 72; Dino Thobela 79 81
161 Brandon Weir 81 80; Kyle Conradie 80 81
162 Ethan Fichardt 82 80; Matthew Bennett 80 82
163 Franco Bester 93 70; Thami Ngobeni 88 75
164 Tyron Nell 81 83; Rialdo de Bruyn 78 86
165 Vian Jansen van Vuuren 89 76; Jordan Goosen 84 81; Chris van der Merwe 82 83
167 Henre Proctor 86 81; Luan Vermeulen 86 81; Martin Papworth 81 86
168 Charl Barnard 84 84; Juan-Paul Oosthuizen 84 84; Damian Araujo 81 87; Storm Du Toit 80 88
169 Zandro Kleynhans 86 83; Walter Green 84 85; Ryan Crawford 83 86
170 Juan Human 90 80; Ruben Jansen van Rensburg 87 83; Josh Plaatjies 87 83; Eric Ncube 84 86
171 Wiaan Liebenberg 87 84; Mikail Jayden Behr 81 90
172 Damian Theunissen 87 85
174 Jayden Hoskins 87 87; Connor Smulders 83 91
175 Tian Malherbe 96 79; Schalk Booysen 96 79; Fareez Alexander 88 87; Lorenzo Sakota 86 89
177 William Reyneke 88 89
180 Yusuf Dadoo 95 85
183 Jayson Borcher 83 100