Coetzee claims weather-affected Tshwane Open

[Monday, March 5, 2018 06:20:10]

George Coetzee’s knowledge of the Pretoria Country Club layout paid dividends as he navigated his way to a four-under 67 final round at the Tshwane Open and claim a four-stroke victory on a total of 18-under 266 on a weather-affected Sunday in Pretoria.                                              

“Winning on my home track is amazing,” he said. “I’m really happy to have done it. I needed to kind of prove to myself after the ankle injuries that I can do it, and I am really happy to have done it.”

He opened the final round with a degree of caution, making two pars back-to-back, but was punished dearly on the third and fourth holes where he made consecutive bogeys to cut down the two-shot lead he held overnight. He then settled himself well to make his first birdie on the sixth which was followed by another a hole later.

“Yea, a couple of drops so early, I thought this is not the way I wanted to start my round,” said Coetzee, “but, I started building momentum and waited my turn and forced a birdie on six and it kind of started coming together.”

On the 11th hole he began his onslaught, carding three straight birdies to pull clear of Korhonen. Dangerous weather conditions then forced the round to be suspended while he was playing 15th where he made another birdie.

The round was suspended once again before he could play the 16th where he made par, however, by this time he was already four shots clear of the chasing pack which included Korhonen whose dropped shots on the 15th and 17th handed Coetzee the win when it looked, at one stage, that he’d force a play-off. The bogey he made on the 17th didn’t matter much as he closed off a dominant week with a birdie to seal his second Tshwane Open victory in three years.

While the wheels were falling off for Korhonen, England’s Sam Horsefield was surging forward and his 67 helped him to a total of 16-under and earned him the second spot, with Korhonen coming third. Sharing fourth was Daniel van Tonder who put up a solid fight to sign for a 65, France’s Sebastien Gros and Felipe Aguilar of Chile. The win is Coetzee’s fourth on the European Tour and his ninth on the Sunshine Tour.

Scores:

266 - George Coetzee 67 64 68 67

268 - Sam Horsfield 68 69 64 67

269 - Mikko Korhonen 68 64 69 68

270 - Daniel van Tonder 67 72 66 65, Sebastien Gros 69 70 66 65, Felipe Aguilar 65 67 71 67

271 - Scott Jamieson 67 69 67 68

273 - Pedro Oriol 71 69 71 62, Thomas Aiken 65 71 67 70

274 - Erik van Rooyen 68 68 67 71

275 - Connor Syme 70 68 68 69, Adilson Da Silva 67 72 66 70

276 - JC Ritchie 68 67 74 67, Jacques Blaauw 71 69 69 67, Scott Vincent 68 69 69 70, Victor Perez 69 68 68 71

277 - Peter Karmis 69 70 72 66, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 67 69 72 69, Ockie Strydom 73 65 70 69, JJ Senekal 67 72 69 69

278 - Richard Sterne 67 73 70 68, Justin Walters 67 68 74 69, Jeff Winther 67 72 70 69, Ryan Evans 69 71 68 70, David Howell 70 70 68 70, Bryce Easton 68 69 70 71, Laurie Canter 73 64 69 72, Jens Dantorp 70 69 67 72

279 - Lorenzo Gagli 72 66 74 67, Matthias Schwab 68 72 71 68, Ricardo Gouveia 67 68 74 70, Jinho Choi 67 70 72 70, Danny Willett 70 68 71 70, Morten Orum Madsen 69 71 69 70, Louis de Jager 64 71 73 71, Hennie Otto 69 70 68 72, Jacques Kruyswijk 69 69 68 73

280 - Toto Thimba 70 71 76 63, Dawie Van der Walt 72 68 72 68, Julien Guerrier 69 72 71 68, Breyten Meyer 67 72 72 69, Patrick Newcomb 67 72 72 69, Kyle McClatchie 69 72 70 69, Christofer Blomstrand 69 68 72 71, Daniel Greene 70 71 68 71, Matthew Baldwin 68 69 70 73, Shaun Norris 66 72 67 75

281 - Robin Sciot-Siegrist 67 74 74 66, Maximilian Kieffer 67 71 76 67, Julian Suri 65 74 72 70, Tjaart van der Walt 71 70 70 70, Haydn Porteous 70 70 70 71, Soomin Lee 71 70 69 71

282 - Gregory Bourdy 68 70 75 69, Jaco Prinsloo 68 69 73 72, Alex Haindl 69 69 72 72, Toby Tree 70 69 71 72, Clement Sordet 68 68 73 73

283 - Grant Forrest 70 70 76 67, Jean Hugo 69 71 68 75

284 - Combrinck Smit 66 70 76 72, Matthew Carvell 69 69 68 78

285 - Christopher Mivis 67 74 73 71, Benjamin Hebert 69 72 73 71, Julien Quesne 73 68 70 74

287 - Charlie Ford 72 68 74 73, Madalitso Muthiya 72 69 72 74

288 - Tyrone Ryan 71 70 69 78

289 - Mark Williams 70 71 78 70

291 - Darren Fichardt 68 73 73 77, Lyle Rowe 70 71 72 78

293 - Hennie du Plessis 69 70 75 79, Jonathan Thomson 68 73 73 79


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