North West & KZN looking solid at SA Country Districts

North West will enjoy a well-deserved bye on Thursday after three successive A-Section victories at this year’s SA Country Districts, while frontrunners KwaZulu-Natal continued to blaze a winning trail in the B-Section battle for promotion at Nelspruit Golf Club on Thursday.

A-SECTION

North West mowed down Ekurhuleni in round one, hammered Boland on day two and added Free State to their growing list of conquests on day 3.

North West led their neighbours 3 – 1 after the Foursomes and Tian Maree, David-Louis Nortje, Slade Pickering, Albert Britz and Naithen Moore racked in the points in the Singles to secure an 8 – 4 victory for the team.

Franco Froneman, Almero Theron and Jacques Schutte put the points on the board for Free State.

Ekurhuleni – coming into the third round after a first round loss and a bye on Tuesday – were looking for a fast start, but Boland was having none of that.

The Cape side won three of the four games in the Foursomes, forcing Ekurhuleni to go for broke in the Singles.

Marco Di Bucci, Lawrence Joubert, Sean Olfsen and Burt and Brandon Gildenhuys reeled in five crucial points of Ekurhuleni, but Bolanders Coenraad Swanepoel, Dylan Jacobs and Christian Basson rallied to force the match into a 6-all draw.

With two rounds to play, North West is in an enviable position.

The team has six points in hand, a three point lead over Boland and one match remaining against defending champions Mpumalanga on Friday.

Manager Leon Bevan says the team will come guns blazing for the final match, irrespective of the outcome between the Mpumalanga vs Ekurhuleni skirmish on Thursday.

“There will be a lot of pride at stake for Mpumalanga and they won’t go down without a fight, so if we want to win this and finish the week undefeated, we need to take the battle to them on Friday,” Bevan said.

B-SECTION

KwaZulu-Natal was all business as they extended their dominance in this year’s inter-provincial with a 9 – 3 victory over Southern Cape.

The two teams were tied going into the Singles, but KwaZulu-Natal nearly scored a clean sweep in the Singles, with only Sean Baker going down 2 & 1 after a closely-fought tussle against Lukas Steyn.

Derek Scullard opened the floodgates when he defeated Werner Welgemoed 7 & 5 and Louis Albertse followed with a 5 & 4 win over Marius de Lange. Johan Pienaar, Ryno Crous, Jens Hillerman, Corne van Deventer and Combrinck Smit piled on the rest of the points.

The coastal side top the log with six points and hold a two point lead over Northern Cape and Border.

Northern Cape had a chance to grab a share of pole position, but Limpopo denied them the window of opportunity when they rallied to tie Northern Cape 6-all.

Border beat neighbours Eastern Province 8 – 4, but Northern Cape held on to second in the standings with 21 games points to Border’s 19.

KwaZulu-Natal will face Northern Cape on Thursday, Border goes up against Southern Cape and Limpopo has a fourth round date with Eastern Province.

Click HERE for A-Section Results

Click HERE for A-Section Log

Click HERE for B-Section Results

Click HERE for B-Section Log


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

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