South Africa bounces back

South Africa bounced back from a 6-1 defeat by GB and I to beat Canada 5 ½-1 ½ on Day 3 of the Astor Trophy tournament at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire.

New Zealand is still on course for a crunch Saturday match against Great Britain and Ireland – but Australia gave them their toughest match so far before the Kiwis edged a 4-3 win.

South Africa shared the morning foursomes 1 ½- ½ over Canada and then pulled away in the singles, winning four out of the five for a comprehensive although closer examination of the individual ties reveals twists and turns that might have gone Canada’s way on another day.

Bertine Strauss was three up at the turn for South Africa against Anne Catherine Tanguay and had stretched her lead to five with a birdie 3 at the 13th before Tanguay won the 14th and 15th.

The second singles also ended in a 3 and 2 win for South Africa with Tiffany Avern Taplin beating Rebecca Lee Bentham. Taplin was three up after five holes but only one up at the turn before winning the 11th and the 13th (with a birdie).

Iliska Verwey was another South African singles winner, but only by one hole over Nicole Vandermade who had the better of the opening holes and was three up after five. Verwey had cut her deficit to one by the turn but it was the 13th before she managed to square the game with a birdie 3.

In a fluctuating contest, Vandermade regained the lead with a birdie 4 at the long 16th but Verwey staged a grandstand finish by winning the 17th and 18th holes for a one-hole victory.

Kim Williams scored South Africa’s fourth win of the afternoon, beating Christine Wong by 3 and 1. Williams went two up for the first time when Wong double bogeyed the short 10th. Wong birdied the 12th and the 13th was halved in birdie 3s before Williams went two up with a par at the 14th.

Wong wasn’t finished yet. She birdied the long 15th to get back to one down, only for Williams to hit her with another birdie 4 at the 16th and a winning par 3 at the 17th for a 3 and 1 margin.

Canada’s only singles winner was Jessica Wallace who beat Henriette Frylinck by one hole. Wallace was two up after seven but only one up at the turn and Frylinck squared it at the 11th. It was a ding-dong struggle over the closing holes with first one player, then the other looking like winning. In the end, Wallace won the 18th to settle matters.

Val Holland writes, “Mission accomplished…the Silent Assassins go big against Canada.

“ Well what a day, freezing cold conditions but luckily no rain. Another day of fantastic golf and so much to be proud of. The golf is just fantastic, tight games, many, many birdies – and at the end of the day it was team SA that pulled it off.

“ Another fantastic win from Kim at number 1 and a great team effort with only Hetta loosing on the last hole in the singles. We changed our foursome pairings for today and it worked well with Iliska and Bertine winning and Kim and Hetta with a good half. An overall win of 5 ½ – 1 ½ .

“ Tomorrow is our day off and we looking forward to sleeping in before heading off to Manchester to Trafford Centre to shop. The team are in high spirits and looking forward to our last ‘Mission’ and this is a big one and that is to beat those Aussies… if we can accomplish this mission we should finish third on our own and a very satisfactory result after our sluggish start. We hope all is well back home. You won’t be hearing from us tomorrow but look forward to sending through our final results on Sunday evening.”

Canada vs South Africa