Daniel van Tonder is chasing his second victory in as many weeks on the Sunshine Tour and HotelPlanner Tour as he takes a three-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round of the MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood. MICHAEL VLISMAS reports.
Van Tonder produced a composed 66 at Pecanwood on Saturday to climb to 22 under par, with Australia’s Danny List his nearest challenger on 19 under par following an impressive 62.
Van Tonder has been in rampant form over the last two weeks.
He won the SDC Open at Zebula last week and in the process reclaimed his No 1 position on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy while also taking the No 1 spot on the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Mallorca standings.
A win on Sunday would be his fourth victory on the Sunshine Tour this season.
“It would be amazing to win again on Sunday,” he said. “It would help a lot towards my goal of winning the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, and then I’m also chasing three wins on the HotelPlanner Tour which secures me a DP World Tour card.”
But it did take him some time to get going on Saturday. He turned in level par after a frustrating front nine, and then played the back nine superbly as he came home in 30.
“I had a good finish on the back nine,” he said. “It took a while for me to get going on the front. I had a bit of bad luck on the front nine with a couple of holes, and made that bogey on the par-five 5th. That was frustrating. But I just kept telling myself it will come sooner or later. I kept giving myself chances and then I used them on the back nine.”
Australia’s List was one of those applying the pressure as Van Tonder worked through his frustrations on the front nine, and surged through the field with his 62.
List was born in Ghana and still feels a strong kinship with that country, which he hopes to also represent on Sunday.
“I definitely have some pretty big ambitions for Ghana golf and I’m trying to represent them as best I can out here,” he said. “The Sunshine Tour is a brilliant Tour and the quality out here is so impressive. I didn’t know that Africa had this much depth in golf talent, and it’s great to see Africa thriving in golf.”
And Van Tonder clearly has goals of his own for Sunday. In his own inimitable way, he explained his focus.
“I’ve become a father for the first time, and that means I now have two women in the house and that’s expensive. So I have no option but to win.”
Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour
