The leading teams of Jovan Rebula and Martin Vorster, and Jean Hugo and Ruan Korb, are preparing themselves for a better ball shootout in Sunday’s final round of the Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship at the Silver Lakes Golf and Wildlife Estate. MICHAEL VLISMAS reports.
Having come through Saturday’s foursomes tied for the lead on 12 under par and one clear at the top of a very tight leaderboard, both teams know full well that it’s all to play for in Sunday’s better ball.
“Anything can happen there and I think the scoring will be low because the guys will have figured out the course by now. It’s all guns blazing for the final round. I’m looking forward to it,” said the experienced Hugo, who combined with Korb for a solid 67 in tricky conditions on Saturday.
“We saw the format before the tournament and knew the better ball was going to be the final round, so it’s all up for grabs for anyone. Anyone can have an outstanding day there and win,” added Rebula, who together with Vorster showed immense composure to shoot a 70 in the windy conditions.
The two teams are one clear of Jaco van Zyl and Gregory McKay who signed for a 66. Van Zyl added a hole-in-one on the par-three 13th that not only elevated his team, but also earned him 50,000 Airlink Skybucks courtesy of the Airlink Aces reward on the Tour this season.
Michael Hollick and Jaco Ahlers could also still easily have a say in the final round, which they’ll go into just two off the lead.
With that kind of challenge awaiting, Hugo and Korb will be out to make a faster start on the front nine than they’ve done all week.
“Somehow we don’t start well on the front and we’ll work on that for the final round. But we like the back nine. Having said that the conditions were tough over the last few holes,” said Hugo.
“For some reason the back nine seems to suit us better than the front. But I’m looking forward to having Jean’s experience with me in the final round,” added Korb.
As the young guns at the top of the leaderboard, both Rebula and Vorster have shown some pretty cool heads over the last three rounds.
“Patience was a virtue out there again today. We got off to a good start but mid-round it got a bit tough and we had to just take a step back a bit and keep the ball in play. But we’ve got our game plan and are enjoying it out here,” said Rebula.
“I think we did a great job to stick to our game plan. We were a little bit more conservative. Our goal today was just to keep ourselves on top of the leaderboard. We can’t control what the others do in the final round but will just stick to our game plan,” added Vorster.
Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour
