Kim Daniels wins the SA Girls’ Rose Bowl

Uitenhage’s 15-year old Kim Daniels won the SA Girls’ Rose Bowl at Clovelly Country Club this week when she carded 228 (80, 76, 72) to finish one stroke ahead of overnight leader Zayb Kippie from Royal Cape – 229 (80, 69, 76). Izel Pieters finished third on 230 (75, 80, 75).

The event attracted a great field of all South Africa’s top junior girls – many of them accompanied by their parents who enjoyed the great autumn Cape weather during the school holidays.

Rounds one and two were played on Monday 4 April in cool weather but the ‘three-club’ wind tested the players, especially those from up-country.

Defending champion Izel Pieters stayed up with leaders, only two shots behind going into the last round with Zyab leading on 153 and Kim a further shot behind.

The wind dropped to a breeze as the final group teed off. After nine holes Kim was level par, and with Izel shooting two over and Zyab one over, there was only one shot separating these players in the final group.

Going down 15 Zyab and Kim were battling it out for the win with Izel two behind. All parred 15 and on the short par three 16th Izel hit the ball to two metres and sunk her putt for birdie to go back to one shot behind leaders.

All had good drives on the long par four 17th, but playing into the wind, Izel played into the greenside bunker and two putted for a drop. Zyab also dropped with her chip onto green and two putts. Kim, was only a meter off the green and made no mistakes chipping to a metre, sunk the putt and took the lead from Zyab. After all three parred the 18th, Kim proudly lifted the Rose Bowl in celebration.

All three girls are currently members of the Ernie Else and Fancourt Foundation – and this event was a great win for Kim who was recently offered a sponsored invitation to Poland after successfully competing in the KeNako S A World Juniors in March. She will be playing in the 2011 Toya Polish Junior Championship from 22 to 25 June in Wroclaw, Poland and WGSA hopes that she will be able to move on to participate in the Iceland Junior Masters the following week.

The 10 to 18 handicap division was won by Royal Cape’s Jade Gray on 258 (92, 86, 80), five strokes ahead of her nearest rival Shawnelle de Lange from Goldfiels West in the North West Province on 263 (88, 92, 83). 10-year-old Woo-Ju Son from Bryanston finished in third place on 267 ((91, 93, 83) – quite a feat for such a small girl playing into in the notorious Cape South Easter.

The 19 and over handicaps participated in two stableford divisions over 36 holes. Mowbray’s Mpho Bangiso won the C Division on 61 points (38, 33) and Nayia Charalambous the D Division on 62 points (30, 32).

The next event on the WGSA Calendar is the Sanlam South African Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championships starting on Sunday 10 April at Rustenburg Golf Club.

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