Mpumalanga dethrone Boland at Country Districts
Mpumalanga disrupted Boland’s title defence in the opening round of the SA Country Districts, while the battle between Ekurhuleni and North West ended in a 6-all draw at ERPM Golf Club on Monday.
Meanwhile Free State defeated Limpopo 6.5 – 5.5, KwaZulu-Natal swept to a 7.5 – 4.5 victory against Northern Cape and Southern Cape whipped Eastern Province 8 – 4 in the B-Section.
Mpumalanga put Boland on the back foot with two victories and a draw in the Foursomes and protected their lead in the Singles to hand Boland a 7 – 5 drubbing.
Andre van Heerden (Jnr) and Brian Naidoo both won 5 & 4, Quintin Wilsnach triumphed 4 & 3 and Kevin Smith, Chris Zietsman and Lourens Volschenk notched half points each to secure the first round victory.
Pieter Coetzee and Daniel Mantel also claimed 5 & 4 victories for Boland, while Lauritz Loubser, Johan Germishuys and Henri van Waart forced the halves.
North West had a comfortable 3.5 – 0.5 lead after a productive Foursomes, but lost their advantage when Adolf van der Merwe, Brandon Gildenhuys, Burt Gildenhuys, Ernest Botha and Stefan Cronje hit back for Ekurhuleni with winning performances in the Singles.
Stephen Allen and Stefan Hulme halved their game to level the score at 6-all.
Border, who won the B-Section promotion battle last year, enjoyed a first round bye and will face the defending champions in their first A-Section battle on Tuesday, while Mpumalanga will challenge for back-to-back victories against North West.
A-SECTION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Mpumalanga (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 7.0)
T2 North West (1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 6.0)
T2 Ekurhuleni (1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 6.0)
4 Boland (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5.0)
B-SECTION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Southern Cape (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 8.0)
2 Kwazulu-Natal (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 7.5)
3 Free State (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 6.5)
4 Limpopo (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5.5)
5 Northern Cape (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 4.5)
6 Eastern Province (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 4.0)
Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association.