Wet finish as Mansfield wins Houghton IGT

It was not exactly the Valentine’s gift Clayton Mansfield was expecting, but the KwaZulu-Natal amateur took it nonetheless.

The GolfRSA National Squad member claimed a maiden IGT Challenge Tour title without hitting a ball on the final day of the Race to Q-School #5 as heavy rain waterlogged the course shortly before the start of the final round, reducing the tournament to 36 holes.

Nobody could begrudge Mansfield his convincing victory after he reached eight under par to establish a three-shot lead after two rounds at Houghton Golf Club on Wednesday.

Mansfield becomes the second member of the GolfRSA National Squad to win on the country’s premier golf development circuit, following on the heels of Casey Jarvis, who triumphed at State Mines last week.

A first trophy has been a long time coming for the 24-year-old Durban Country Club golfer, who has his sights set on a spot on the Sunshine Tour.

“I guess it’s my lucky day!” he said. “I’ve won twice on the amateur scene, but it’s been a while since I last hoisted a trophy.

“I started really well in very wet conditions to put a good first round score on the board to take the lead. Yesterday was a big day for me. Conditions were even tougher, and I did well to grind out one-under-par 71 and to increase my lead to three shots.

“It’s never ideal to have a tournament reduced and I would have loved to put my game under pressure in the final round, but those are the breaks in this game. It’s a shame to have finished it like this, without playing a shot, but my game has been coming into form. The last two days were the best I have played for some time and I felt like it was my time.

“It’s a special one for me with Final Stage of the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School coming up next month. I will take a lot of confidence from the week and the win, and just try to keep the momentum going.”

Although Rupert Kaminski had his hopes of chasing down Mansfield dashed by the weather, but the Parkview golfer was upbeat about the result.

“There’s always next week,” said Kaminski. “Clay and I came up against each other on the amateur circuit and I know him well, so I’m really happy for him. I am pleased that I put myself within a couple of shots of the lead for two days running and I’ll take that to the next event.”

Final Result (top 20)

All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified; amateurs indicated as AMA

136 - Clayton Mansfield AMA 65 71

139 - Rupert Kaminski 67 72

141 - Kyle Barker 69 72, Luke Brown 71 70, Hayden Griffiths 69 72

142 - Mitchell Lightfoot 70 72, Luke Mayo AMA 73 69, Eric Nel 70 72

143 - Thanda Mavundla 71 72, Darin de Smidt AMA 69 74, Nicholaus Frade AMA 71 72, Peetie van der Merwe 71 72, Albert Venter 70 73

144 - Neal Herman 67 77, Dongkwan Kim (KOR) 70 74, Werner Deyzel AMA 69 75

145 - Allan Jirek AMA (CZE) 74 71, Leon van der Walt AMA 72 73, Henning du Plooy AMA 71 74, Stephan Erasmus 71 74, Andrew Carlsson 73 72, Clinton Grobler 74 71, Michael Pfeifer 73 72, Richard Joubert 73 72, Stefan Wears-Taylor 73 72, Leon Vorster 74 71

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