Porteous drops out of the lead to finish 3rd as South Africa lift the Nation’s Trophy at 4th U16 Italian International Championship

South African Hayden Porteous (pictured on the far right along with the rest of the SA contingent from left to right: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Thriston Lawrence, Errol Taylor (manager) and Shane Allan) who won the second playing of this tournament in 2008, showed his class once again with a third place finish on a score of 296 (+4). Porteous lead for the first three rounds of the championship until a final round of 77 left him in a tie for third, one shot behind the winner.

Shane Allan, from CMR golf club in Johannesburg, finished in a tie for eighth place after an impressive final day’s score of 145 (1 under).

The South African team of Hayden Porteous, Shane Allan, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Thriston Lawrence, won the Nation’s Trophy on a score of with 296 shots one shot ahead of with Denmark (297), Switzerland finished third on a team score of (302).

Errol Taylor described the finish to the Nation’s Trophy as follows:
“Haydn Porteous was in the clubhouse on two under, leading the tournament by two shots after two rounds of 72 and 69. We needed Christiaan to birdie one of the last 3 holes to tie for 1st place in the team event. He eagled 16 to give us the outright lead but dropped on 18 to put us back in a tie. Shane then had to birdie two of the last 4 holes win. He birdied both the 15th & 16th before making two heart stopping pars to give us the win. It has taken us 4 years to win this event, Victory is sweet.”

Thirty-seven players made the cut in the race for the Individual 72 hole stroke play. Christiaan Bezuidenhout was the only one of the South Africans not to make the cut. ,

Haydn Porteous was interviewed after the second round and he stated, “I am very happy. It ‘s the third time I have played here in Biella and I love this area. “