Showtime at SA Mid-Amateur IPT

10 October 2019 – With one round remaining in the South African Mid-Amateur Inter-Provincial Tournament, top teams Western Province, Gauteng North and Central Gauteng will come out guns blazing in Friday’s final round, while Eastern Province will aim to cap a magical week in Cape Town with an unbeaten week at King David Mowbray Golf Club.

A-SECTION

Western Province dominated their fourth round match against Free State, scoring a clean sweep in the foursomes and losing a single point in the singles for an 11 – 1 triumph, but needed to dig a little deeper against KwaZulu-Natal.

Two-all after the foursomes, number 1 Gerlou Roux and Weyers Janse van Rensburg put the local favourites on the attack with 5 & 4 wins each, but the score was back to all-square after Thomas Lovett (5 & 4) and Sean Baker (2 & 1) racked up 2 points for the coastal side.

Shaun le Roux (4 & 2), Cameron Johston (3 & 2) and Greg Sheard (2 & 1) reeled in the 3 points required to guarantee the win for Western Province and Elton James rallied from dormie 2-down to square against Gavin Sole and seal a 7.5 – 4.5 result.

The inaugural champions of the prestigious team event in 2013 would love nothing more than giving their fans a home victory and they are in with a good chance.

Western Province will head into their match against Ekurhuleni with 8 points and with 39.5 game points in hand. They trail log leaders Gauteng North by just 2 points and the Daisies only have half a game point advantage.

If Gauteng North hopes to lift the A-Section trophy for the first time, they will need to score a convincing victory against Central Gauteng. The Lions are on 8 points, but with 35.5 game points, the defending champions’ fight is long from over.

Ekurhuleni mowed down Southern Cape 8 – 4 to move to fourth in the standings and KwaZulu-Natal downed Free State 9.5 – 2.5 to take fifth place. Free State is in sixth place with 2 points, which leaves Southern Cape facing relegation. Having not won a single match, it’s do or die time for the Garden Route side when they face KwaZulu-Natal in the final round.

B-SECTION

Eastern Province routed Limpopo 9 – 3 to seal the battle for promotion, but the log leaders are far from done. “The week is not over yet, so there won’t be any early celebrations tonight,” said team manager Joe Matiwane.

“We haven’t lost a match yet, so our collective goal is to try and finish the tournament unbeaten. We know it require another huge effort from the boys in our final match against Mpumalanga. But the corks will pop once we complete the job.”

Eastern Province leads the standings with 10 points, and will head into the final day with a 3 point lead over North West and Boland.

After a draw and a loss on day one, Boland beat Northern Cape in the second round to build some momentum and kept the winning form going to defeat Border 6.5 – 5.5 and Mpumalanga 9.5 – 2.5 on Thursday.

The double victories lifted the side to third in the log and boosted their game point tally to 35. They will start their final round against Limpopo, just 1 game point behind second placed North West, who will play Northern Cape.

Mpumalanga took down Border 7.5 – 4.5 to move into fourth spot on 5 points, while Limpopo edged Northern Cape for fifth place with 25 to 23 game points. Border, at the bottom of the log, has a final round bye.

A-SECTION RESULTS – ROUND 4
Western Province 7.5 vs KwaZulu-Natal 4.5
Western Province 11 vs Free State 1
KwaZulu-Natal 9.5 vs Free State 2.5
Ekurhuleni 8 vs Southern Cape 4

A-SECTION LOG – ROUND 4
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Gauteng North (5, 5, 0, 0, 10, 40)
2 Western Province (5, 4, 0, 1, 8, 39.5)
3 Central Gauteng (5, 4, 0, 1, 8, 35)
4 Ekurhuleni (5, 2, 0, 3, 4, 30)
5 KwaZulu-Natal (5, 2, 0, 3, 4, 26.5)
6 Free State (6, 1, 0, 5, 2, 23)
7 Southern Cape (5, 0, 0, 5, 0, 22)

B-SECTION RESULTS – ROUND 4
Eastern Province 9 vs Limpopo 3
Boland 9.5 vs Mpumalanga 2.5
Mpumalanga 7.5 vs Border 4.5
Boland 6.5 vs Border 5.5

B-SECTION LOG – ROUND 4
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Eastern Province (5, 5, 0, 0, 10, 40.5)
2 North West (5, 3, 1, 1, 7, 36)
3 Boland (5, 3, 1, 1, 7, 35)
4 Mpumalanga (5, 2, 1, 2, 5, 27)
5 Limpopo (5, 1, 1, 3, 3, 25)
6 Northern Cape (5, 1, 1, 3, 3, 23)
7 Border (6, 0, 1, 5, 1, 29.5)

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of GolfRSA.