North West holds on at SA Country Districts

North West proclaimed their intention with a dominating performance in the opening round of the SA Country Districts Tournament in the Eastern Cape, but the defending champions came unstuck against a spirited Boland challenge on day two at the Fish River Sun Country Club.

North West launched their defence with an overwhelming 10.5 – 1.5 victory against Free State, but will have to regroup after Boland turned the tables to win 6.5 – 5.5 on Tuesday.

Boland took a 3 – 1 lead in the foursomes and held out for victory, despite a strong comeback from North West in the singles.

Martin Walsh and Aldre Terblanche won the first two games to chip away at the side’s deficit and Hugo Malan gave North West a half point lead when he halved his match against JF Conradie.

Peter Willemse and Riaan Gerber retaliated for Boland, but North West’s Eduard van den Berg and Albert Britz hit back to put North West ahead again.

It came down to the final match between Meyer Pauw and Francois Kruger, but Pauw swung the match in Boland’s favour when he triumphed 2 & 1.

North West held on to their top spot in the log despite the loss, and although all the teams have two points, the defending champions have with 16 game points, thanks to the superb first round effort.

The side leads by four points from second placed Mpumalanga, who wiped out their 5 – 7 first round loss to Ekurhuleni with a 7.5 – 4.5 victory against Free State.

Meanwhile Southern Cape and Border scored back-to-back victories in the B-Section to dominate the standings.

Border defeated KwaZulu-Natal 7.5 – 4.5 win in the first round and handed Northern Cape an 8 – 4 drubbing to take their tally to four points.

The Garden Route side dominated their first round match against Eastern Province to win 8 – 4 and scored a clean sweep in the foursomes to set up a 10.5 – 1.5 victory over Limpopo in round two.

Outstanding performances from Daniel Gouws, William Malgas and Heinrich Frylinck added to their game points and helped Southern Cape to a three games point edge over Border.

A-SECTION RESULTS – CLICK HERE

A-SECTION LOG

(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)

1 North West (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 16.0)

2 Mpumalanga (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 12.5)

3 Ekurhuleni (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 7.0)

4 Boland (1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 6.5)

5 Free State (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 6.0)

B-SECTION RESULTS – CLICK HERE

B-SECTION LOG

(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)

1 Southern Cape (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 18.5)

2 Border (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 15.5)

3 Northern Cape (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 11.5)

4 Eastern Province (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 10.5)

5 KwaZulu Natal (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 10.0)

6 Limpopo (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 6.0)

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association.

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