Luca Filippi issued a stern warning to his contemporaries with a perfectly struck 5-iron at the final hole, and two-putted for victory in the 36-hole qualifier of the South African Amateur Championship on Monday.
The overnight leader fired a one-under-par 71 at King David Mowbray Golf Club to lift the prestigious Proudfoot Trophy by one shot on a winning score of 10-under 134.
Stals Swart made the most of the benign morning conditions and fired a 65 to set the clubhouse target at nine-under. The Pretoria Country Club golfer had to settle for second alongside Irishman Caolan Rafferty, who carded 66 for second.
Filippi open his campaign with a nine-under-par 63, however the stiff breeze on Sunday morning was nothing compared to the four-club wind the 19-year-old GolfRSA National Squad player had to face over the last nine holes in the final round.
‘I had a late start and the wind was already blowing hard when we teed off,’ said Filippi. ‘I got off with a good par, but at the second I pitched it front edge and hit my putt 10 metres past. I missed the return for par, but I rebounded with a good birdie at the third after hitting my lob-wedge stiff.’
The Milnerton golfer birdied six, dropped nine, but a regained a one-shot lead with birdie at 11.
‘I dropped another shot at 14 after almost hitting my drive into someone’s backyard and I knew I needed one more birdie down the stretch to get back to 10-under,’ said the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation player.
‘I hit a driver down the middle at 15. The wind was pumping off the left. We were at a four-club wind by this stage and I went with an 8-iron. I pitched it 10 feet from the flag and drained birdie putt. The last three holes were going to be really tough in the wind, and that gave me a really small cushion.
‘I hit a long bunker shot to eight foot at 16 and boxed the par putt and had two putts for par at 17. At the last hole, I hit another great drive down the fairway, but I was between a 4- or 5-iron. I went with the 5-iron and I thinned it slightly, but it held the line perfectly and pitched 12 foot from the flag.
‘I rushed my first putt and hit it four foot past, so I took my time with the second putt. This time it went in the middle and dropped. That was the greatest feeling.’
Some of South Africa’s most illustrious golfers have lifted the coveted trophy, including four-time Major winner Ernie Els, two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen, 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman and six-time European Tour winner, Richard Sterne.
Filippi was delighted to add his name to past winners’ list, but quickly turned to matters at hand.
‘It’s a real honour to win this trophy,’ he said. ‘I’ve been working hard in the last year to take my game to the next level, and being part of the GolfRSA National Squad Tour to the United Kingdom really helped to give me insight into what I needed to do.
‘The work started to pay off when Therion (Nel) and I represented South Africa in Argentina, and it’s gratifying to see the results pay off with the Proudfoot Trophy. But the real work starts now. Nothing is guaranteed in match play. A guy can win with 18 pars or lose with 10 birdies.
‘So I’ll start the first round on Tuesday with a clean slate. I might play a little more aggressively to get some birdies on my card, but again, that depends on the kind of conditions we face. If it blows like today, the key will be patience and taking the opportunities where and when they come.’
Last week’s African Amateur Stroke Play Championship winner, Euan Walker, sealed his berth with a fourth-place finish on 136. The Scotsman finished one shot clear of South African juniors Jayden Schaper and Sam Simpson, and Western Province stalwart Elton James.
England’s Joe Long shot a 67 to tie for eighth with Gaelen Trew from Wales on 138, while a 65 landed Liam Cloete a share of 10th with last year’s Proudfoot Trophy winner, David Langley, from England.
Eight players did battle for the last five spots to complete the field of 64 that will start the match play stage. The spoils went to Ayden Senger, Kyran Hawkins, Germany’s Sebastian Sliwka, Tiarnan McLarnon from Ireland and Antoine Sale from Reunion, who will battle Filippi in the first round.
36-hole stroke play qualifier
134 – Luca Filippi 63 71
135 – Stals Swart 70 65; Coalan Rafferty IRL 69 66
136 – Euan Walker GBR 71 65
137 – Jayden Schaper 72 65; Samuel Simpson 69 68; Elton James 66 71
138 – Joseph Long GBR 71 67; Gaelen Trew GBR 69 69
139 – Liam Cloete 74 65; David Langley GBR 68 71
140 Darren Howie SCO 73 67; Brandon Gildenhuys 71 69; Conor Purcell IRL 68 72
141 – Charles Larcelet FRA 74 67; Martin Vorster 73 68; Jordan Duminy 72 69; James Sugrue IRL 68 73
142 – Yurav Premlall 72 70; Gregory Mckay 71 71; Ronan Mullarney IRL 71 71; Jim Johnston SCO 70 72; James Wilson SCO 69 73
143 – Matt Saulez 75 68; Tom Plumb GBR 74 69; Maxmilian Herrmann GER 74 69; Noah Hessey ENG 74 69; Nicolas Muller FRA 72 71; Deon Germishuys 68 75; Siyanda Mwandla 68 75
144 – Alex Gleeson IRL 75 69; Ben van Wyk 74 70; Ryan van Velzen 74 70; Letsoso Letsai 73 71; Michael Holden 73 71; Alexander Herrmann GER 73 71; Hennie O’Kennedy 73 71; Freddie Spencer 72 72; Timo Vahlenkamp GER 72 72; Matthew Mc Carthy 71 73; Cameron Johnston 71 73; Aneurin Gounden 69 75
145 – Kieran Cantley SCO 74 71; Joe Harvey GBR 74 71; Lewis Pownell GBR 74 71; Billy McKenzie GBR 73 72; Wilco Nienaber 73 72; Jannik De Bruyn GER 71 74; Aymeric Laussot FRA 71 74
146 – Robert Brazill IRL 78 68; Casey Jarvis 76 70; Mark Hyde GBR 76 70; Marin D’Harcourt FRA 75 71; Philip Taberer 75 71; Marc Alexander Hammer GER 75 71; Liam van Deventer 73 73; Tyran Snyders 73 73; Jeff Wright SCO 71 75; Mark Power IRL 71 75
147 – Garrick Higgo 77 70; Antoine Sale 75 72; Barend Botha 75 72; Tiarnan McLarnon IRL 75 72; Keelan van Wyk 75 72; Ayden Senger 75 72; Kyran Hawkins 73 74; Sebastian Sliwka GER 73 74
148 – James Murray 78 70; Robbie Cannon IRL 77 71; Henning Stander 76 72; Dylan Naidoo 76 72; Kieran Babbage GBR 76 72; Francois Cilliers 75 73; Stephen Roger SCO 75 73; Byron Coetzee 75 73; Therion Nel 75 73; Calvin Ferreira 74 74; Kartik Sharma IND 73 75; Anant Singh Ahlawat IND 73 75; Caylum Boon 72 76; Luke Mayo 72 76
149 – Kyle de Beer 79 70; Christiaan Maas 78 71; Lukas Bastian Buller GER 76 73; Charl Everts 76 73; Meyer Pauw 76 73; Paulus Jorg GER 75 74
150 – Shaun le Roux 79 71; Nicholas Souranis 79 71; Varun Parikh IND 76 74; Dylan Underwood 76 74; Christo Lamprecht Jnr 76 74; Jordan Burnand 75 75; Theo Boulet FRA 75 75; Vinay Kumar Yadav IND 74 76
151 – Christopher Long 80 71; Daniel Cronje 78 73; Peter McKeever IRL 77 74; NJ Botha 76 75; Jason Shaun Hale 75 76; Tom Vaillant FRA 75 76; Karabo Mokoena 74 77; Dandre Spies 73 78
152 – Luan Boshoff 77 75; Loris Schuepbach SUI 77 75; Judd Sundelson 77 75; Kifentse Nukeri 77 75; Sean Paxton 77 75; Titouan Berny 76 76; Christopher Gutuza 74 78; Brendan Porter 73 79
153 – Matthew Mortimer 77 76; Calvin Maia 75 78
154 – Callum Mackay GBR 80 74; Matthew Dennis 79 75; Vaughn van Deventer 78 76; Brandon Cloete 74 80
155 – Connor de Groote 82 73; Luke Truter 79 76; Altin van der Merwe 76 79
156 – Samual Mckenzie 80 76; Jaco Linde 80 76; Steven le Roux 79 77; Pierre Pellegrin 79 77; Matthew Cooper 78 78; Herman du Plessis 78 78; Charlie Dell 78 78; Phillip Swanepoel 77 79; Weyers Janse van Rensburg 77 79; Murray Boast 76 80; Aran Sinclair 76 80
157 – Francois Blaauw 82 75; Florent Toulet 81 76
158 – Alex Winn GBR 78 80
160 – Brendan Els 85 75; Ryan Estment 80 80
161 – Nicholas Morgan 82 79
163 – Liam Millard 77 86
165 – Tiago Swart 84 81
167 – Mogamat Alee Solomon 83 84
170 – Max Hansen 88 82
183 – Guy Krige 92 91
DQ – Christiaan Burke 72 DQ
WD – Armand van Dyk 81 WD; Brendan Smith 85 WD
