Gauteng North hold course at SA IPT
Gauteng North’s Werner van Niekerk sunk a nervy seven-footer for birdie at the 18thhole to halve his game with Armand Scholtz and gift his team the crucial half point needed to beat Boland for their second successive victory in the South African Inter-Provincial, sponsored by Tempest, at Rustenburg Golf Club.
Gauteng North beat Central Gauteng with 6.5 to 5.5 points on Monday and had a narrow escape on the same number against the joint defending champions, but the two victories nonetheless vaulted the side to the top of the A-Section log.
Moreover, it strengthened their bid to break a 29-year title drought in the country’s premier team championship, sponsored by Tempest.
“It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win,” said Gauteng North Golf Union president Gerry Few.
The team manager said his players showed incredible commitment.
“I am incredibly proud of the fighting spirit the guys have shown over the last two days, especially when the stakes were down. They never gave up fighting and they really rallied for each other.”
Southern Cape, who crushed Boland in the first round, had their winning run cut short by joint defending champions Western Province, who bounced back from their first round defeat against KwaZulu-Natal.
Province went into the singles with a 2.5 – 1.5 cushion and defeated the Garden Route side 7.5 – 4.5.
As expected, SA IPT veterans Cameron Johnston an, Werner Theart and Aaron Russell came out scoring, but rookies Ian Snyman and Drew Denyer did well to contribute to the team score by holding off Lanny Davids (5&4) and Breyten Meyer (1-up) respectively.
Central Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were level after the foursomes and were pretty evenly matched until Matthew Spacey’s 5 & 3 win over Chris van der Merwe gave the team a little momentum and Andi Dill pushed them further ahead with a 3 & 2 win over Ryan Birdie.
B-SECTION
North West were smarting after their loss to Ekurhuleni on Monday, but the home favourites came back with a vengeance and ran Eastern Province to ground.
The sides were tied 2-all but the local team rallied with a near clear sweep in the singles, with only irst round star Danie van Tonder on the losing end. Siegmund Human defeated the former professional 2 & 1 but the effort too late and the Eastern Province side was left wanting after a 3-9 defeat.
Limpopo, who fell to Ekurhuleni and North West in the first round, converted a 3-0 foursomes lead to a 8 – 4 result against Border into victory but failed to gain the upperhand against Free State and Northern Cape, going down 8 – 4.
The Free State side took a comfortable 3.5 – 0.5 lead into their singles against Border.
Jade Buitendag was the only Border player able score for the team with his 4 & 3 win over Rian Coetzee while the rest of the team was bludgeoned into a 10.5 – 1.5 defeat.
Day 3 Foursomes draw
Day 3 Singles draw
Day 2 Results
Current Grid