A pair of 67s from Luca Filippi and Kajal Mistry at Royal Harare Golf Club put the two South African teams in a strong position at the 2017 All-Africa Junior Golf Championship in Zimbabwe.
Filippi helped to stretch South Africa’s advantage in the Boys Competition over the host nation for a third successive day, while Mistry bettered her own course record to help her team to an insurmountable lead over Zimbabwe in the Girls Competition.
BOYS
Filippi had a lone birdie at the par-5 third, but the Milnerton golfer racked in gains at 13, 15, 16 and 18 to finish at five under. Reigning Sanlam SA Amateur champion Christo Lamprecht from Southern Cape added an even-par 72 and Ekurhuleni’s Jayden Schaper contributed a second successive 73. SA’s top ranked Garrick Higgo from Boland rallied after an expensive second round 78 with a 73 that handed the side a total of four under 212.
The well-timed push not only kept the SA team’s title defence on track, but it stretched their two-shot overnight lead over Zimbabwe to 15 shots and bettered their chances to secure a spot to the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.
GIRLS
Mistry bettered the course record by one shot with a three-under-par 69 in the first round and went two shots lower on moving day. The 16-year-old Randpark golfer notched gains at 11 and 13, before reeling in four birdies in a row from the 15th hole. She spoiled an otherwise flawless card with a bogey at the fourth.
‘Unfortunately I had a three-putt bogey on my back nine, but otherwise I hit the ball really well to set myself up for birdie chances,’ Mistry said. ‘My teammates also did really well. Kaleigh pulled it back from seven for a 75 and Symone chipped in seven and signed for a 70 that gave us a third round total of seven-under-par 137.
‘As a team, we are doing nicely and we lead by 52 shots from Zimbabwe. We’d like to sign off with a sub-par total, though, so there is still some work to be done.’
Boys Team Leaderboard
642 South Africa 211 219 212
657 Zimbabwe 212 221 224
689 Reunion Island 228 232 229
695 Uganda 229 229 237
703 Morocco 229 241 233
732 Zambia 238 253 241
Boys Individual Leaderboard
208 Luca Filippi RSA 70 71 67
216 Jayden Schaper RSA 70 73 73
217 David Amm ZIM 73 73 71
218 Christo Lamprecht RSA 71 75 72
222 Justin Kersten ZIM 67 77 78; Garrick Higgo RSA 71 78 73
224 Alexandre Lasalarte REU 74 77 73
Girls Team Leaderboard
430 South Africa 144 149 137
483 Zimbabwe 159 163 161
511 Kenya 170 178 163
611 Zambia 196 219 196
Girls Individual Leaderboard
213 Kajal Mistry RSA 69 77 67
217 Simone Henriques RSA 75 72 70
229 Kaleigh Telfer RSA 75 79 75
242 Danielle Bekker ZIM 77 82 83
244 Kellie Gachanga KEN 78 89 77
Words: Courtesy Lali Stander
Image courtesy: Golf RSA. Pictured (from left): Luca Filippi, Garrick Higgo, Kaleigh Telfer, Symone Henriques, Kajal Mistry, Christo Lamprecht and Jayden Schaper
