Ruan de Smidt reclaimed his Sunshine Tour playing card at Houghton Golf Club on Thursday after carding a second successive 67 to earn a one-stroke victory at the Final Stage of Qualifying School.
Having not earned himself enough money in the season to keep his card, the four-time Sunshine Tour winner found himself outside of the top 100 players in the Order of Merit, and thus lost his playing privileges.
– The 2019 class includes former top amateurs Garrick Higgo and Deon Germishuys, as well as rookie Kyle McClatchie, another player with rich amateur pedigree
He went into the final round of Qualifying School trailing Peetie van der Merwe and amateur Luke Mayo by two shots on nine-under par following his third-round 67. He announced his intentions clearly and quite early on in the round, going five-under in his first six holes of the final round.
In those six holes, he made a birdie on his first hole, another on the fourth and then followed that up with an eagle on the par-five fifth hole before making another birdie on the next hole. A bogey on the seventh threatened to derail his progress, but De Smidt would have none of that, birdieing the eighth hole to turn in 31.
A level-par 36 on the back nine – which consisted of a birdie on the 12th and a bogey on the last hole – was solid enough to ward off the challenge mounted by Aubrey Beckley, who finished a shot behind De Smidt.
While there’s pressure for almost all the players to play well in order to attain their playing rights, De Smidt wasn’t one of those.
‘If you’re not playing well, there’s a lot of pressure,’ he said.
‘I’ve been playing well. Even the 71 I shot on day one, I felt I was playing well, but the putts were not dropping in. It makes it a little easier when you’re a couple of shots under-par in the first two rounds because you’re not really worried. I knew I was playing well, so I was not worried.’
De Smidt, however, and by his own admission, did have something else worrying him in the final two rounds at Houghton.
‘I was more nervous for my boetie (Darin),’ said De Smidt. ‘I know how long the struggle was for him. He’s been playing so nicely and I’m just super happy that he made it.’
The 34 players earning their cards:
- Ruan de Smidt
- Aubrey Beckley
- Tristen Strydom
- James Allan, Garrick Higgo, Luke Mayo
- Ryan O’Neill, Toby Tree, Ryan Tipping, Kyle Barker, Peetie van der Merwe
- Damon Stephenson, Kyle Souza
- Sean Bradley, Rupert Kaminski, Deon Germishuys, Wayne Stroebel
- Andrew McLardy, Matthew Rushton, Bradley Diggeden, Clinton Grobler
- Stefan Wears-Taylor, Roberto Lupini, Erhard Lambrechts
- Kyle McClatchie
- Basil Wright, Theunis Bezuidenhout, Arno Pretorius, Ruan Botha, Hayden Griffiths, Christopher van der Merwe, Darin de Smidt, Jonathan Waschefort, Jade Buitendag
