Alex Haindl ended an 11-year trophy drought in style at Mount Edgecombe Golf Club as he sunk a 45-footer putt for eagle to win the R750 000 Sun Sibaya Challenge by a single shot from Jared Harvey on Friday.
He finished the tournament at 16-under-par 200.
‘The last hole was great,’ he said after his round. ‘I hit my tee shot a bit left, trying not to go right, obviously. And I hit a really good second shot, and the last putt, I was, obviously, trying to make, but also trying to get it close, and seeing it go in was a bonus. It was great.’
It was a spectacular effort from the Bloemfontein resident because at one stage it seemed as if a six-man play-off was inevitable, but it eventually proved to be a race between himself and Harvey, who missed his eagle putt on 18 and settled for a birdie. Haindl didn’t make the same mistake.
‘Obviously there were nerves,’ Haindl said of the pressure on those last two holes.
‘But I kind of knew what I had to do, so that makes it a bit easier. I knew I had to go birdie-birdie at the worst, and try to get into a play-off. My brother kept me in there as well. It’s very nice having him on the bag. He’s very experienced, he’s been in Europe for a long time.’
This win caps what has been a really solid season for 34-year-old, because despite having last tasted victory some 11 years ago at the Suncoast Classic back in 2006, he has missed only one cut, and he boasts five top-10s in the 13 events he’s played this season.
‘I’ve always said that I’d love to win again, but it isn’t the only thing that I’m going for,’ he said. ‘I just try to put together as many good events as possible. So to win is very nice. It’s a little bonus.’
Ironically, he almost didn’t play this week due to recurring pains in his back where he had surgery in 2015. It was his brother who convinced him to play. ‘My brother convinced me to come here. He said “Well, you need to get into Mauritius and you need to win somewhere”, so I said “let’s go”.’
Rounds of 66-66-68 proved enough to earn him his second title on the Sunshine Tour, while also catapulting him to fourth on the Order of Merit ahead of the summer swing. Now, with the co-sanctioned and tri-sanctioned events fast approaching, Haindl can look forward with a degree of confidence following his spectacular display this week.
Final leaderboard:
200 – Alex Haindl 66 66 68
201 – Jared Harvey 67 66 68
202 – Jean Hugo 69 67 66, Jonathan Agren 67 68 67, Jaco Prinsloo 68 67 67, Colin Nel 65 68 69
203 – Tyrone Ferreira 65 71 67, Chris Cannon 67 67 69, Keith Horne 67 64 72
204 – Adilson Da Silva 65 69 70, Neil Schietekat 68 66 70
205 – Dongkwan Kim 70 66 69, Stefan Engell Andersen 72 64 69, Justin Harding 67 67 71
206 – Stephen Ferreira 70 67 69, Martin Rominger 69 67 70, Oliver Bekker 63 69 74, Peter Karmis 65 64 77
207 – Tyrone Ryan 69 70 68, Jean-Paul Strydom 68 69 70, Vaughn Groenewald 68 67 72
208 – Cody Martin 69 69 70, Ryan Cairns 69 69 70, Matthew Carvell 70 68 70, Ulrich van den Berg 69 69 70, Matias Calderon 67 70 71, Jake Roos 69 67 72, Andre Nel 70 65 73
209 – Titch Moore 73 66 70, Wynand Dingle 74 64 71, Louis de Jager 68 69 72, Francois Coetzee 71 63 75
210 – Daniel Greene 69 69 72, Irvin Mazibuko 68 70 72
211 – Anthony Michael 66 72 73
212 – Jason Viljoen 72 67 73, Bryandrew Roelofsz 70 67 75, JC Ritchie 70 65 77
213 – Lindani Ndwandwe 69 68 76
214 – Jacquin Hess 69 69 76
215 – Gert Myburgh 70 69 76, Herman Loubser 63 71 81
