NATIONAL NEWS - While Keith Horne was busy upstaging world number one Jordan Spieth in round one of the Singapore Open in Asia, his Lumenrock Sport stable-mate Louis de Jager celebrated a wire-to-wire victory in the IGT Tour’s Killarney Open on Wednesday.
“I’m flippen happy to see that Keith got his groove back because he has also been struggling in the last couple of months,” De Jager said. “Every pro goes through this at one stage or another, but the frustration can drive you insane.
“So people might think that winning on South Africa’s development Tour is nothing compared to leading in Asia, but let me tell you, any pro who has gone through a long period of frustration will tell you that a return to the winner’s circle is as good as winning the Lotto.”
De Jager opened with a five under 65 at Killarney Country Club to take pole position. He protected his lead with a second round 66 and closed with a 69 for a three stroke victory on 10 under 200.
The timely victory just two weeks before the R18.5-million Tshwane Open signalled a welcome return to form for the delighted three-time Sunshine Tour winner.
“My last victory on the Sunshine Tour came at the Nedbank Affinity Cup in November 2014 and that year I finished the season ranked 17th,” De Jager said. “The next year, I bagged a top 25 finish in the Chase to the Investec Cup in March and then it was just downhill from there.”
After missing eight cuts in nine starts, De Jager looked up Llewellyn von Leeuwen at the HPC TuksSport Golf Academy.
“Lew was my first coach as an amateur and the person that knows my swing the best,” he said. “We knew it would take months of hard work to sort out my game, but they have a great team at Tuks HPC that looks after every facet of the game.
“The relief to see all that work pay off with three solid rounds this week is indescribable. It’s not just about winning. It’s about hitting the ball well and putting well. It’s about restricting the bogeys and stringing three sub-par rounds together. And knowing that it’s going to keep getting better and better.”
De Jager came unstuck at the start of the round, but quickly got his challenge back on track.
“I was really nervous on the first tee, but I guess it’s been a while,” De Jager laughed. “I hit a decent tee shot but it struck a tree and shot straight into the water. Matthew Southgate made a birdie start and we were level after my bogey, and I guess that broke the tension.
“I holed a four-footer for birdie at four and made a great sand-save for birdie at the next hole to pull two shots clear. Matthew dropped shots at seven and nine and that gave me a four shot lead going down the back nine. The set-up was really tough, so I just played for pars.”
De Jager was stung by a bee at the 13th hole and didn’t know if he was allergic.
“As it turned out, Maja’s kiss was just the kick I needed to box a birdie putt at 14,” he said. “I wanted to finish in style, but I pulled my tee shot slightly and finished in the trees at 18. I had a lot of shots in hand, so I just punched out, got on the green and two-putted for the win. Now I’m going to enjoy a few days playing with Luca and then I’m going to polish my game for the Tshwane Open in the IGT Tour event at Centurion next week.”
Final result
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs indicated as (AMA):
200 - Louis de Jager 65 66 69
203 - Johnathan Agren SWE 70 67 66
204 - Matt Carvell 70 69 65, Matthew Southgate ENG 67 66 71
205 - Michael Kok (AMA) 72 69 64, Hennie Du Plessis 69 66 70
207 - Pieter Kruger 72 67 68, Antonio Rosado POR 70 66 71
208 - Danie Van Tonder 72 69 67, Juan Swart 71 70 67
209 - Eddie Taylor 68 75 66
210 - Teboho Sefatsa 68 71 71
211 - CJ du Plessis 75 65 71
212 - Gerard Du Plooy 72 75 65, Andi Dill 72 70 70, Juan Langeveld 69 72 71, Brett Liddle 70 70 72
213 - Arthur Horne SWZ 72 71 70, Siphiwe Siphayi 69 71 73, Norman Beggs 69 70 74, MJ Daffue 67 72 74
214 - Conway Kunneke 76 68 70, Louis Taylor 72 70 72, Neal Herman 69 72 73, Stephan Erasmus (AMA) 72 69 73
215 - Sipho Bujela 78 68 69, Callum Mowat 70 72 73
216 - Michael Scholz 71 73 72
217 - Simon Kruger 70 78 69, Sam Botham ENG 72 71 74
218 - Coert Groenewald 73 76 69, Terence Boardman 76 69 73, Alastair Waddell ENG 77 67 74, Pieter Moolman 71 72 75
219 - Dayne Moore ZAM 77 71 71, NJ Arnoldi 73 75 71, Mario Olivier (AMA) 75 73 71
220 - Garth Wolter 73 77 70, Sheldon Steyn ZIM 74 75 71, Shaun van Tonder 72 76 72, Calvin Caldeira 76 69 75
221 - Wayne Stroebel 69 76 76, Wynand Dingle 73 71 77, Werner Van Niekerk 74 76 71
222 - Hayden Griffiths (AMA) 74 76 72
223 - John McClean NIR 75 74 74
224 - Jason Froneman 78 73 73
226 - Mark Bright 75 76 75, Dwayne Coetzee 72 79 75, Basil Wright 76 72 78
227 - Thabang Simon 78 76 73, Matthew Adams (AMA) 74 76 77, Ricardo Towell 75 74 78, Derryn Mitri (AMA) 76 73 78
228 - Leon Visser (AMA) 77 77 74, Brendan Britten NAM 79 69 80
229 - Lourens Du Plessis 72 81 76
230 - Louis Botha 74 80 76
231 - Christiaan Pretorius 74 79 78
233 - Terence Mogapi 78 75 80
234 - Christiaan Engelbrecht 78 76 80
WDN - Eric Nel (AMA) 79 75 WDN
N/R - Neil Cheetham ENG 74 72 N/R
DSQ - David Lamprecht 69 85 DSQ
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER.
