Rourke van der Spuy fought off nerves to sign for a three-under-par 69 to win his second Sunshine Tour title by four shots on Sunday at the Mopani Redpath Zambia Open.
‘I obviously felt a bit nervous today,’ he admitted.
‘I managed to hold my nerve and finish strong. It was a really good week from day one, and kind of built up the momentum all week. Started off with a solid round and the game kind of felt like it got better throughout the week.’
After rounds of 70, 67 and 66, Van der Spuy started the final round leading by two and wasted no time in emphasising his intentions at Nkana Golf Club. He opened with birdies on the first two holes but dropped a shot on the 6th. He then made two more birdies on the 7th and 9th to turn in 33.
He made an unwanted bogey at the 10th but swiftly recovered with a birdie on the par-three 11th. Two pars later, it looked like he was in trouble as he made back-to-back drops on the 14th and 15th. But, as it was the case in round three, Van der Spuy made an eagle on the 17th to finish the tournament on 16-under-par 272.
‘It was a good battle out there,’ he said of the duel he and Justin Harding had during the final round of the tournament. ‘It was very fun playing with Justin. He had a good run out there; I made a couple of bogeys and he made a couple of birdies and that was quite a momentum swing. But certainly, the eagle on the 17th two days in a row was a nice capping point for a really good week.’
Claiming his second tournament in three years, having claimed the Sun Fish River Sun Challenge in 2015, Van der Spuy admits this win has been in the making for a while.
‘The win at Fish River came in my first year and that was nice to get the monkey off my back. But you always get the feeling that the next one is close and to do it in a full four-round tournament is just a good feeling,’ he said.
He will now look forward to getting into tournaments with an exemption for the next couple of years.
Final leaderboard:
272 – Rourke van der Spuy 70 67 66 69
276 – Justin Harding 67 73 65 71
277 – Colin Nel 68 71 69 69, Daniel van Tonder 72 67 68 70
278 – Martin Rohwer 76 68 69 65, Jake Roos 68 72 68 70
279 – Neil Schietekat 73 69 69 68
281 – Louis de Jager 69 72 69 71
282 – Keenan Davidse 74 69 74 65, Jean Hugo 71 71 69 71, Jonathan Agren 70 72 69 71
283 – Oliver Bekker 75 73 71 64
284 – Titch Moore 77 70 66 71, Steven Lecuyer 69 74 69 72, JC Ritchie 70 75 67 72
285 – Alex Haindl 71 71 73 70, Fredrik From 74 69 70 72, Lyle Rowe 73 68 71 73, Christiaan Basson 70 75 65 75, Jared Harvey 76 67 65 77
286 – Philip Eriksson 72 70 73 71, Chris Cannon 71 72 71 72, Peter Karmis 73 72 67 74
287 – Tyrone Ferreira 74 69 73 71, JJ Senekal 69 74 72 72, Stephen Ferreira 74 71 70 72
288 – Ulrich van den Berg 75 71 69 73, Doug McGuigan 72 69 73 74, Toto Thimba 70 73 71 74
289 – Steve Surry 71 74 72 72, Mark Williams 73 70 71 75
290 – Basil Wright 74 73 75 68
291 – Jake Redman 71 72 73 75, Ryan Cairns 71 72 72 76
292 – Andrew van der Knaap 77 70 72 73, Luke Joy 76 70 71 75, Dayne Moore 73 72 70 77, Phillip Kasozi 69 72 71 80
293 – Luke Jerling 72 74 79 68, Jaco Prinsloo 75 69 75 74, Ockie Strydom 73 71 75 74, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 72 72 73 76, Andrew Odoh 76 69 72 76, James Hart du Preez 73 73 70 77, Wallie Coetsee 77 69 70 77
294 – Jason Viljoen 72 75 73 74, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 69 72 77 76, Breyten Meyer 72 74 71 77, Louis Albertse 73 69 73 79, Thriston Lawrence 71 73 71 79
295 – Jason Froneman 73 72 78 72, Vaughn Groenewald 76 70 74 75, Tyler Hogarty 74 74 72 75
296 – Ryan Tipping 73 73 72 78, Ruan Conradie 74 73 71 78
298 – Teboho Sefatsa 76 69 75 78
300 – Merrick Bremner 76 70 79 75, Lindani Ndwandwe 73 74 77 76
302 – Wynand Dingle 71 75 82 74
309 – Thabang Simon 70 78 80 81
