Musiwalo Nethunzwi got the better of James Kamte in a playoff on Thursday to win the Vusi Ngubeni Tournament at the Soweto Country Club, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
Nethunzwi started the fourth and final round three-shots off the pace with Jacquin Hess the overnight leader at the start of play on Thursday.
The 30-year-old delivered a composed showing with a bogey-free round 4 under par, to finish tied for the lead on 5 under with Kamte.
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Nethunzwi held his nerve on the first playoff hole as Kamte made a double-bogey, which handed Nethunzwi victory in the process.
And he is adamant that the Sunshine Tour should stage more tournaments at the newly-refurbished Soweto course.
‘It would be great if we could have tournaments here. ‘eEven if it’s just two tournaments in a season, even one – that would be great. This golf course has produced many good golfers. Bafana Hlophe is from here, Vincent Tshabalala who won the French Open, he was from here.’
Nethunzwi admitted that he realised that he has to remain calm throughout the whole day if he wanted any chance of coming out on top.
‘This is a marathon. When we started on the first day it was raining and I had no rain-gear, I forgot it at home. I was happy with the 75 in round one. But, I told myself that this is a marathon and I don’t have to put myself under pressure because there are 54 more holes to play. Every day, my caddie and I went home and looked at my stats and we found I improved daily.
‘In the playoff, I saw James hit it to the right and I knew there was no shot there. I have been hitting it to the left all week. When his second shot got caught by the tree, I told myself that anywhere on the green will do for me, take a five and walk away. He was never going to make a five there,’ said Nethunzwi.
As a result, he will lead a group of 15 players from the competition into next season’s Sunshine Tour.
They are Musiwalo Nethunzwi, James Kamte, Irvin Mazibuko, Thanda Mavundla, Jacquin Hess, Alpheus Kelapile, Makhetha Mazibuko, Adriel Poonan, Yubin Jung, Siyanda Mwandla (a), Evance Vukeya, Dwayne Basson, Nikhil Rama, Lindani Ndwandwe, Sipho Bujela, Jason Diab.
