SA teams hold reins at All-Africa Junior

A pair of 67s from Luca Filippi and Kajal Mistry at Royal Harare Golf Club put the two South African teams in an undeniably strong position on moving day at the 2017 All-Africa Junior Golf Championship in Zimbabwe.

Filippi from Western Province helped to stretch South Africa’s advantage over the host nation for third successive day in the Boys Competition, while Mistry bettered her own course record to give help her team to an insurmountable lead over Zimbabwe in the Girls Competition.

Girls Competition
Mistry bettered the course record by one shot with a three-under-par 69 in the first round and went two shots lower on moving day. The 16-year-old Randpark golfer notched gains at 11 and 13 before reeling in four birdies in a row from the 15th hole. She spoiled an otherwise flawless card with a bogey at the fourth.

“Unfortunately I had a three-putt bogey on my back nine, but otherwise I hit the ball really well to set myself up for birdie chances,” Mistry said. “My team-mates also did really well. Kaleigh pulled it back from seven for a 75 and Symone chipped in seven and signed for a 70 that gave us a third round total of seven-under-par 137.

“As a team, we are doing nicely and we lead by 52 shots from Zimbabwe. We’d like to sign off with a sub-par total, though, so there is still some work to be done.”

Boys Competition
Filippi had a lone birdie at the par-5 third, but the Milnerton golfer racked in gains at 13, 15, 16 and 18 to finish at five under. Reigning Sanlam SA Amateur champion Christo Lamprecht from Southern Cape added an even-par 72 and Ekurhuleni’s Jayden Schaper contributed a second successive 73. SA’s top ranked Garrick Higgo from Boland rallied after an expensive second round 78 with a 73 that handed the side a total of four under 212.

The well-timed push not only kept the SA team’s title defence on track, but it stretched their two shot overnight lead over Zimbabwe to 15 shots and bettered their chances to secure a spot to the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup

“We had another mixed bag, but there were more positives than negatives to take away from today’s third round,” said team manager Eden Thompson.

“Garrick hit the ball great, but the putter stayed cold and he was four over through the first six holes. He turned it on over the back nine and is extremely happy with how he is hitting the ball at the moment. Fingers crossed that the putter comes to the party in the final round.

“Jayden rolled the ball particularly well on what are now fast greens, running just over 11 on today’s stimp, but he just could not get a ball to drop and slowly chipped away at par. An incorrect pin sheet dictated Jayden’s approach to the 17th and cost him a shot from what was a perfect tee shot. The pin sheet indicated that the flag was back right when it was actually back left. He was blocked out by a tree to the back left flag and finished bogey-bogey.

“Christo was two over after uncharacteristic double bogey on the par-5 sixth. He drove the green at eight and two putted for birdie to turn one over. A poor drive at 17 blocked off from the green and a bogey spoiled what was otherwise a very solid back nine.

“Luca was text book and his placement off the tee set him up for another good round. The difference between yesterday and today was putts that dropped. A birdie finish saw Luca sign for the low round of the day and it tied the low round for the tournament with Zimbabwe’s Justin Kersten.

“We now have a more comfortable lead, but as I said to the team this morning, they still have to show why they are ranked the best Junior team in Africa.”

Girls Team Leaderboard – Round 3
430 South Africa 144 149 137
483 Zimbabwe 159 163 161
511 Kenya 170 178 163
611 Zambia 196 219 196

Girls Individual Leaderboard – Round 2
213 Kajal Mistry RSA 69 77 67
217 Simone Henriques RSA 75 72 70
229 Kaleigh Telfer RSA 75 79 75
242 Danielle Bekker ZIM 77 82 83
244 Kellie Gachanga KEN 78 89 77
250 Emily Jones ZIM 82 81 87
251 Margaret Nyamukondiwa ZIM 87 86 78
267 Ashley Ouma KEN 92 89 86
288 Loice Akinyi KEN 93 99 96
300 Martha Matyola ZAM 98 105 97
313 Miness Siami ZAM 98 115 100
316 Rachel Namusiya ZAM 103 114 199

Boys Team Leaderboard – Round 3
642 South Africa 211 219 212
657 Zimbabwe 212 221 224
689 Reunion Island 228 232 229
695 Uganda 229 229 237
703 Morocco 229 241 233
732 Zambia 238 253 241
741 Kenya 240 248 253
753 Mauritius 252 251 250
757 Tunisia 235 255 267
762 Namibia 258 256 248; Malawi 246 257 259
874 Botswana 268 296 310

Boys Individual Leaderboard – Round 3 (top 10)
208 Luca Filippi RSA 70 71 67
216 Jayden Schaper RSA 70 73 73
217 David Amm ZIM 73 73 71
218 Christo Lamprecht RSA 71 75 72
222 Justin Kersten ZIM 67 77 78; Garrick Higgo RSA 71 78 73
224 Alexandre Lasalarte REU 74 77 73
225 Nyamukondiwa Tafadzwa ZIM 79 71 75
227 David Kamulinda UGA 69 78 80
228 Antoine Sale REU 76 74 78

PHOTO – SA Boys and Girls Teams at All-Africa Junior Golf Championship; credit GolfRSA
From left to right: Luca Filippi (Western Province), Garrick Higgo (Boland), Kaleigh Telfer, Symone Henriques and Kajal Mistry (Gauteng), Christo Lamprecht (Southern Cape) and Jayden Schaper (Ekurhuleni).

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of GolfRSA, a SAGA and WGSA Not-For-Profit company.