Monique Smit wins the Southern Cape Championships in Knysna

Former Southern Cape Number One Monique Smit stamped her mark in the province once again when she won the Southern Cape Championships in a play-off on Sunday on a soaked Knysna golf course.

Tied top of the leader board with SA’s top-ranked Kim Williams on 148, Monique claimed the title when she parred the first sudden-death hole to a drop from Kim.

Southern Cape President Ann Johnstone reported that the championship was played in beautiful sunshine on a VERY WET Knysna course. On Tuesday 24 August the heavens opened over Knysna and they had 50 mm on a course that was already drenched and looked like a sea of water. With the forecast for Friday of more rain the club was most concerned and pumped out 1,280,000 litres of water with five pumps.

The course was lengthened for the Championship Division to a 73 rating but the wet conditions pushed the dynamic rating to over 75. Of the 68 players in the field, 42 were in this division. The B and C divisions played from the ladies tees.

Kim Williams led the field on level-par 73 after round one, with Gauteng’s Nicole Garcia one back on 74. However Monique returned a great five-under 68 in the final round to make up for her disappointing 80 in round one. Kim Williams dropped two shots for 75 to tie top of the leader board while top junior Boland’s Bianca Theron finished third on 152 (78,74), Nicole Garcia finished fourth on 153 (74,79) and Southern Cape’s Nicole Loesch was fifth on 155 (71, 74).

The B division was won by Jamie –Lee Daniels (Uitenhage) and the C division by one of Southern Cape’s Juniors, Inge Conradie (George)