His father told him not to push for the win in the final round of the R750,000 Sun Boardwalk Challenge on Friday, but Tyrone Ryan ignored the advice as he charged his way to a maiden Sunshine Tour victory at Humewood Golf Club.
He fired a flawless final round for a six-under-par 66 in testing windy conditions to edge out Christiaan Bezuidenhout by a single shot. That was after overnight leader Colin Nel battled his way to a two-over 74 and had to settle for a share of third with Bryandrew Roelofsz and Anthony Michael.
‘I spoke with my dad on the phone last night, and he told me not to try and chase the win,’ said Ryan, who was five off the lead after 36 holes, ‘but I got to the range this morning, and I thought, ‘Screw that, I’m pushing for the win.”‘
The result was an opening nine of two-under-par 33, and then he picked up another birdie at the 11th.
‘I looked at the leaderboard on the 15th green, and I saw I was one back,’ said Ryan.
He had already made his fourth birdie on the 15th, and he knew if he pushed a little over 16 and 17 – where he made an eagle and a birdie they day before – he’d set a challenging target. He rolled in a 20-footer for birdie on the 16th and then made birdie on 17 after narrowly missing a lengthy eagle chance.
He parred 18, and then had to wait for two more groups to finish before he could have the victory confirmed.
‘That was an emotional roller-coaster,’ he said. ‘I had the same putt as Christiaan had for birdie on 18. I knew it wasn’t an easy putt, up two tiers, downwind, into the grain, so I knew he had to hit a good one. Chances were favouring me there, but Christiaan’s a great player. At any time, he’ll roll in a putt like that.’
The Sunshine Tour title was a long time in the making. He won at Irene in the inaugural year of the Big Easy Tour in 2011, and again at Glendower on the Big Easy Tour in 2014. A wrist injury sidelined him for six events on the 2017-18 Sunshine Tour. His comeback from that was punctuated by three missed cuts in six tournaments.
And then came Humewood. An opening round of two-over 74 gave no indication of what he was going to achieve, but his second round of seven-under 65 did.
And he sealed the deal sweetly with his final 66. ‘My emotions are going all over the place,’ he said. ‘I’m excited one moment and emotionally sad at the next moment, but it’s good to get the win. I could feel it was coming over the last few months, so to finally get it is huge.’
Final leaderboard:
205 – Tyrone Ryan 74 65 66
206 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout 70 67 69
208 – Bryandrew Roelofsz 70 70 68, Anthony Michael 70 69 69, Colin Nel 68 66 74
209 – Jaco Prinsloo 72 71 66, Jake Roos 74 67 68, Andrew Curlewis 69 71 69, Jared Harvey 70 70 69
210 – Ulrich van den Berg 74 70 66, JC Ritchie 70 68 72, Mark Williams 70 65 75
211 – Alex Haindl 73 72 66, Louis de Jager 70 72 69
212 – Antonio Rosado 69 76 67, Jonathan Agren 75 70 67, Altaaf Bux 74 70 68, Steve Surry 72 72 68, Ockie Strydom 76 67 69, Hennie Otto 69 70 73, Breyten Meyer 71 68 73
213 – Peter Karmis 74 71 68, Francois Coetzee 69 74 70, Wynand Dingle 72 71 70, Hennie du Plessis 69 73 71, Theunis Spangenberg 71 71 71
214 – Madalitso Muthiya 75 69 70, Scott Campbell 71 73 70, Vaughn Groenewald 74 69 71, Desne Van Den Bergh 73 69 72, Christiaan Basson 70 71 73
215 – Gert Myburgh 74 71 70, Lyle Rowe 71 73 71
216 – Jake Redman 70 75 71, Wallie Coetsee 72 73 71, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 70 74 72, Ruan de Smidt 73 70 73, Stefan Engell Andersen 71 71 74
217 – Doug McGuigan 75 70 72, Michael Hollick 74 71 72, Andre De Decker 74 69 74, Makhetha Mazibuko 72 71 74, Merrick Bremner 72 70 75
218 – Jason Diab 72 72 74, Combrinck Smit 71 73 74
219 – Irvin Mazibuko 72 73 74
