WEINSTEIN TIED 2ND WHILE SCHOLTZ AND LIM HOLD ON FOR VICTORY
Armandt Scholtz and Claudia Lim, the overnight leaders in the Boys and Girls Competitions respectively, held onto to win the 54 hole inaugural KeNako South African World Juniors on Thursday. And Lara Weinstein, knowing that she needed a birdie on the final hole, did just that and finished tied second with Sweden’s Linnea Ström.
Armand Scholtz won the boy’s event handsomely by four shots, with six under par aggregate, and the jovial Australian, Claudia Lim finished two shots clear in the Girls Competition, on 221, five over par.
The tournament which is sanctioned by the World Junior Golf Series, was played at the superbly prepared Kingswood Golf Estate, George.
The weather played a large role in providing difficult playing conditions. First play was suspended for forty five minutes before a single shot was played. Then a light cold breeze and drizzle followed the morning field. It warmed up and the wind abated only to return late in the afternoon with a driving light rain. “It was tough in the rain while the breeze on the front nine made for difficult playing conditions,” said the eighteen year old Paarl Golf Club winner.
Claudia Lim felt the same: “It was colder today,” said the eighteen year old Jack Newton Junior Golf member from Sydney in Australia.
There was also a 54 hole Team Competition for both boys and girls, in which the two team members score in each tournament round counts. South Africa 3, made up of the tournament winner and his friend from Boland, Drikus Bruyns, ended with a one under par aggregate of 431. So too did the team representing Zimbabwe. However in terms of the count out rules the lowest final round aggregate wins. South Africa’s 143 was two shots better than the two Zimbabweans.
The Australian Team of Claudia Lim and Carly Beck won the Girls Team competition with a score of 445. They finished a comfortable eight shots clear of the second team from Sweden.
“One of the objectives of the event was to promote international competition, with nineteen countries participating and of the total field size of 113, approximately 40% were foreign players. This proved to be a marvellous opportunity for our young players to share ideas and get to interact with other countries,” said Erica Lefson, the tournament director.
“It was really great talking to players from other countries to see how they operate,” said Scholtz of his experiences of the event. Scholtz was in dominant form, recording six birdies and three bogeys. It was over the back nine that players appeared to drop shots, but the tall Paarl golfer managed to match a bogey with a birdie and thereby kept his position in the field while others fell by the way side. He recorded a final round of 69, three under par.
Claude Lim, who said afterwards that she enjoyed playing the back nine, and it showed. Despite four bogeys on her card to the turn, she played regulation golf over all the holes on the back nine barring one where she birdied. Her nearest challengers, particularly Lara Weinstein and Swede Linnea Ström, could not stick with the consistency of Lim. They dropped shots and eventually finished second tie two shots off the pace.
From a golfing interest point of view the great Australian professional, Jack Newton, was personally in attendance at the KeNako South African World Juniors, supporting five of his junior golf programme members.
One of the players, Ruben Sondjaja, came out on a scholarship to play this event, according to Peter van Wegen, a representative of the programme. “This scholarships is partly funded by the Sydney branch of Nomads and the Nomads organisation here in South Africa. We are really grateful for their support as is Ruben,” said van Wegen.
The Jack Newton Junior Programme players, of which there are five, play a team from Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation, at Fancourt, on Friday along with a team from the local branch of Nomads.
The KeNako South African World Juniors attracted Official World Golf Ranking points.
KeNako South African World Juniors
Kingswood Golf Estate (Par 72)
Final Round Leaders
(South African unless stated otherwise)
Boys:
210 – Armandt Scholtz (72,69,69)
214 – Scott Vincent (ZIM) (69,75,70)
215 – Luke Jerling (73,72,70), Adrian Meronk (POL) (70,75,70)
217 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout (76,70,71), Martin Rohwer (73,73,71), Jarrod Freeman (AUS) (73,71,73), Raynard Badenhorst (ZIM) (72,70,75), Ruben Sondjaja (AUS) (72,70,75)
218 – Josh Cabban (AUS) (73,76,69), Breyten Meyer (73,69,76), Zander Lombard (69,73,76)
220 – Maximilian Rottluff (GER) (74,70,76)
221 – Drikus Bruyns (76,71,74)
222 – Maximilian Mehles (GER) (77,70,75), Shayne Allan (74,77,71), Dylan Raubenheimer (73,74,75), Jason Froneman (72,73,77), Roux Jeffery (NAM) (71,78,73)
223 – Tristen Strydom (77,72,74), Josh de Klerk (75,71,77), MJ Viljoen (74,76,73), Gudmundru Kristjansson (ISL) (73,79,71), Paul Boshoff (71,77,75)
224 – Zander Gous (82,69,73), Conway Kunneke (77,74,73), Jan Szmidt (POL) (76,74,74)
Mateusz Gradecki (POL) (75,77,72), Runar Arnorsson (ISL) (72,78,74)
Boys Team Competition: Leaders
431 – South Africa 3 (148, 140, 143) (Armandt Scholtz (72,69,69), Drikus Bruyns (76,71,74), Zimbabwe (141, 145, 145) (Scott Vincent (69,75,70), Raynard Badenhorst (72,70,75))
South Africa wins with the lowest 3rd Round aggregate.
435 – Australia (146,147,142) (Josh Cabban (73,76,69), Jarrod Freeman (73,71,73))
439 – South Africa 2 (146,147,146) (Dyan Raubenheimer (73,73,75), Martin Rohwer (73,74,71)), Poland (145,152,142) (Adrian Meronk (70,75,70), Mateusz Gradecki (75,77,72))
441 – South Africa (153,144,144) (Christiaan Bezuidenhout (76,70,71), Conway Kunneke (77,74,73)
445 – Germany (150,144,151) (Maximilian Rotluff (74,70,76), Anton Kolloss (76,74,75))
447 – Iceland (145,157,145) (Guomundur Kristjansson (73,79,71), Runar Arnorsson (72,78,74)
Girls:
221 – Claudia Lim (AUS) (72,74,75)
223 – Lara Weinstein (75,73,75), Linnea Strom (SWE) (72,76,75)
224 – Carly Beck (AUS) (81,71,72)
230 – Linnea Johnsson (SWE) (77,78,75), Lora Assad (75,73,82)
232 – Bonita Bredenhann (NAM) (77,78,77)
233 – Ji Sun Kung (KOR) (82,77,74), Michaela Gasplmayr (AUT) (82,75,76), Bertine Strauss (80,76,77)