Frontrunners emerge at SA Country Districts
North West enjoyed another productive outing, KwaZulu-Natal extended their dominance in the B-Section and Mpumalanga got their title defence back on track on day two of the 2016 SA Country Districts Inter-Provincial at Nelspruit Golf Club on Tuesday.
A-SECTION
North West strengthened their position as the A-Section log leaders with an 8 – 4 victory over Boland.
Buoyed by the thundering victory over Ekurhuleni in their opening match, North West dominated the Foursomes to take a 3 – 1 cushion into the Singles.
JF Conradie gave Boland a much needed boost when he beat David-Louis Nortje 6 & 4, but Slade Pickering and Zabastian de Jager won 2 & 1 to extend North West’s lead to 5 – 2.
Dylan Jacobs gave Boland a temporary boost when he downed Albert Brits 1-up, but Naithen Moore and Johan Krugel crippled Boland’s campaign when both claimed 1-up victories. Boland’s last hope went out the window when North West’s Marco Schoenfield and Tiaan Maree squared the final games to secure the win for their team.
Meanwhile Mpumalanga – smarting after their first round loss against Boland – came out guns blazing to defeat Free State 8 – 4.
The two teams were tied going into the Singles, but Ivan Mare won the first game out against Franco Froneman to put Mpumalanga on attack.
Ru-Jean Lessingh, Gary Daniel, Christiaan de Beer and Peetie van der Merwe boosted their score to 7 – 2 and halves from E Wilken and Chris Zietsman sealed the victory for the defending champions.
B-SECTION
KwaZulu-Natal scored a thundering victory in their opener against Eastern Province and thumped Limpopo 9.5 – 2.5 to take the outright lead in B-Section standings.
Going into the Singles with a 4 – 0 lead, Jens Millerman, Corne van Deventer, Steve Phytides, Louis Albertse and Combrinck Smit put KZN firmly in the driver’s seat and Sean Baker squared his game against Vincent Olley to add another half point to KZN’s tally.
With four points in hand, KwaZulu-Natal moved one point clear of Northern Cape and Southern Cape to top the log with four points.
In the other matches, Northern Cape defeated Border 9 – 3 and Southern Cape downed Eastern Province 8 – 4. Northern Cape edged into second in the standings and lead Southern Cape with 14 game points to 13.
Click HERE to view the A-SECTION RESULTS
Click HERE to view the A-SECTION LOG
Click HERE to view the B-SECTION RESULTS
Click HERE to view the B-SECTION LOG
Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association.