Showdowns looming at SA IPT
The final round of the 54th South African Inter-Provincial, sponsored by Tempest, is set for a cliff-hanger finale at Westlake Golf Club on Friday.
The battle for supremacy will go down to the wire between Central Gauteng and Western Province, while the relegation scuffle is on a knife’s edge between Southern Cape and Gauteng North.
Central Gauteng slammed Ekurhuleni 7.5 – 4.5 to remain unbeaten after four rounds of the premier team championship.
The youthful side top the A-Section standings with eight points and has 31.5 games points in hand.
Western Province trounced main contenders Boland 10-2 to edge into second on eight points, but pose a threat with 29.5 games points.
Gauteng North bowed out after a strong assault from Southern Cape, who won 7-5 and sent the defending champions to the bottom of the log.
After a draw in the Foursomes, rookie Marco Steyn won 4&3 to take Central Gauteng’s first scalp.
Matthew Spacey halved his match against reigning Nomads SA Boys U-19 champion Paul Boshoff, and Andi Dill, David Meyers, Michael Dixon and Louis Taylor piled on the rest of the points.
“This was undoubtedly our toughest match of the week,” said manager Jaco du Plessis. “We were only up in two matches at the turn, but the boys stepped it up and turned the tide.
“Matt was dormie 2 down, but birdied the last two holes to square his match. Louis was 2-down through 11, but birdied the 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th to beat Tristen Strydom 2-up.
“It felt like the Ryder Cup out there. The boys produced under huge pressure and performed like champions.”
After a first round loss, Province launched a huge comeback to rise to joint second in the standings.
The host union scored a clean sweep in the Foursomes against Boland and, drawing on local support, rallied with five Single victories and two halves to spoil their neighbour’s party.
Skipper Werner Theart and number one Altin van der Merwe halved their matches, while Cameron Johnston, Aaron Russell, Luke Trocado, Ian Snyman and Gerlou Roux reeled victories for Province.
“Gauteng North will definitely come out fighting,” said Theart.
“Just like we will be playing to win, they will be playing for survival. We expect them to bring everything to the final round. We won’t take anything for granted, though.
“We’ve worked hard to get ourselves into this position, and we can only control our own match. We’ll bring the same focus to the final match and let the chips fall where they fall.”
Jade Buitendag, Breyten Meyer, Ivan Williams, Nicholas Mitchell and Jovan Rebula produced the goods against Gauteng North to lift Southern Cape from the bottom of the log.
“The guys took a lot of punishment on the back nine this week and we were staring relegation straight in the eye,” said Southern Cape manager, Billy Valentyn.
“We decided to change our strategy on the stretch after the turn and we got the results. Everyone who was up, stayed up and that made all the difference.
“We are in for a tough match against Ekurhuleni, especially after their loss today. We can’t count on Western Province to do us any favours against Gauteng North, so we need to bring everything to our final match to avoid regelation.”
Click HERE for the full results and logs.
Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association.