A final round 68 handed Neil Schietekat his second win of the season and his maiden Vodacom Origins of Golf title when he defeated Louis de Jager by one shot at Arabella Country Club on Sunday.
His first came at Sun City over two months ago and after a series of solid results in the tournaments preceding this week’s event in Kleinmond, he finally added a third trophy to his cabinet after signing for a total of 11-under-par 205.
‘That one came from nowhere,’ he admitted.
‘I didn’t know if I was actually playing good enough to win and then, obviously, the eagle on 13 and I saw I was a couple ahead. I kind of said to myself ‘don’t stuff it up, let them (chasing players) try to make the birdies.’ It was quite surprising but I will take it.’
In a bogey-free final round, Schietekat made birdies on the second and ninth holes as he turned in 34 and then three pars followed from 10 through 12 before he made that eagle.
‘It was a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway,’ he said about that eagle.
‘I had about 245 and I hit rescue straight at it and it went just over the green but I putted it and it was about 15-20 foot, and it went in.’
With De Jager and Jaco Ahlers, the overnight leaders who were ahead of him by two shots, playing solidly themselves, Schietekat admits he didn’t have any number in his mind coming into Sunday.
‘I actually didn’t have any score in mind,’ he revealed.
‘The whole week I kind of struggled with my game, just kind of kept it in play. We weren’t hitting a lot of drivers. We just kept hitting it on the fairway and the putter was very quiet.’
De Jager finished on 10-under-par while Jake Roos and Trevor Fisher shared the third spot on nine-under. Jacques Blaauw continued his good run with yet another top-10 finish as he and Ahlers took up the fifth position while veteran Jean Hugo, Peter Moolman and Zimbabwe’s Marc Cayeux shared the seventh position.
Peter Karmis, along with Brandon Stone who was making his first start of the season on the Sunshine Tour, make up the top-10.
Final leaderboard:
205 – Neil Schietekat 69 68 68
206 – Louis de Jager 68 67 71
207 – Jake Roos 73 67 67, Trevor Fisher Jnr 68 68 71
209 – Jacques Blaauw 69 71 69, Jaco Ahlers 68 67 74
210 – Jean Hugo 69 74 67, Pieter Moolman 69 70 71, Marc Cayeux 68 70 72
212 – Peter Karmis 72 71 69, Brandon Stone 71 71 70
213 – Keenan Davidse 73 73 67, Jaco Prinsloo 71 69 73
215 – Heinrich Bruiners 68 75 72, Rhys West 71 72 72, Ockie Strydom 68 74 73
216 – Luke Jerling 75 71 70, Estiaan Conradie 73 72 71, Callum Mowat 72 71 73, Jonathan Agren 74 69 73
218 – Steven Lecuyer 76 70 72, Cameron Moralee 76 69 73, Vaughn Groenewald 71 74 73, Doug McGuigan 74 71 73, Michael Hollick 76 69 73, Herman Loubser 72 71 75
219 – Allan Versfeld 75 71 73, Michael Palmer 72 74 73, Christiaan Basson 77 69 73, MJ Viljoen 72 73 74, Tyrone Ferreira 71 74 74
220 – Daniel van Tonder 73 73 74, Daniel Greene 72 74 74, Roberto Lupini 74 72 74, Jason Viljoen 73 72 75
223 – Bennie van der Merwe 74 72 77, Titch Moore 76 70 77, Franklin Manchest 72 73 78, Charl Coetzee 77 68 78
RTD – Jake Redman 73 70 RTD
Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
