Daisies need to dig deep against GolfRSA Juniors

Otto van Buynder from Gauteng North; credit GolfRSA.

It’s a big day for defending champions Gauteng North, who head into the business end of the week at Atlantic Beach with a spring in their step after their first victory in this year’s SA Challenge Cup.

The Daisies gained two points for a 7.5 – 4.5 result against the Presidents Team in Wednesday’s third round to move into fourth spot on the log, but they will need to bring their A-game and more to their fourth round contest against the championship leaders GolfRSA Juniors today.

The 2015 champions defeated Central Gauteng 8.5 – 3.5 to open up a one point lead over Western Province in the standings after the host union drew 6-all with University Sport South Africa.

Due to heavy fog blanketing the Cape Peninsula on Wednesday morning, play had to be delayed. As a result, the foursomes were cancelled and all matches were halved.

Otto van Buynder burst from the blocks in the singles to beat Presidents Team rookie Cole Stevens 6 & 5 and Etienne J van Rensburg picked up the second point for Gauteng North with a 3 & 1 win over Karabo Mokoena.

Rookie Yurav Premlall from Ekurhuleni banked the Presidents Team’s first point when he took down Kifentse Nukeri 3 & 1.

Clifford Thompson beat Lwazi Gqira 2 & 1 and Dawid Opperman beat Aneurin Gounden 2-up to hand Gauteng North a 4 – 1 lead, but the final three contests all went down the wire.

Francois Pretorius halved against Neswill Croy, Christopher van der Merwe squared against Keelan Africa and Nicholaus Frade halved the final game against Siyanda Mwandla to secure victory for Gauteng North.

Andrew Carlsson from Central Gauteng beat Tyron Davidowitz 6 & 5, but Reece Haikney, Bradley de Beer, Martin Vorster, Slade Pickering, Jayden Schaper and Christo Lamprecht racked up six points and rookie Alex van Wyk halved against James Pennington to take the GolfRSA side to the top of the log with six points.

Adam Botha also made a blistering start, mowing down Michael Maybery 7 & 6 to bag the first point for Western Province. Chris Wicks won 3 & 2, Weyers Janse van Rensburg won 4 & 3 and Deon Germishuys scored the fourth point for Province when he downed Clayton Mansfield 5 & 3.

Hando Brophy, David Nortje and Kyle de Beer pencilled in the points for USSA, with Altin van der Merwe squaring the match with a superb 6 & 4 win against Elmo Barnard.

In Thursday’s remaining matches, the Presidents Team will be targeting a first win against Western Province, while Central Gauteng faces USSA.

Third Round Results

GolfRSA Juniors 8.5 vs Central Gauteng 3.5
Western Province 6 vs USSA 6
Gauteng North 7.5 vs Presidents Team 4.5

Third Round Standings
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)

1 GolfRSA Juniors (3, 3, 0, 0, 6, 23)
2 Western Province (3, 2, 1, 0, 5, 19)
3 USSA (3, 1, 1, 1, 3, 18)
4 Gauteng North (3, 1, 0, 2, 2, 18)
5 Central Gauteng (3, 1, 0, 2, 2, 15.5)
6 Presidents Team (3, 0, 0, 3, 0, 14.5)

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of GolfRSA, a SAGA and WGSA Not-For-Profit company.