South African Haydn Porteous held his nerve for a bogey-free round of 69 to claim a maiden European Tour victory at the Joburg Open on Sunday.
Joint overnight leader Porteous made just five bogeys all week and hit every green in regulation at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club during his final round, while the chasing pack behind him struggled for the same consistency.
The 21-year-old finished the tournament on 18-under-par, two shots ahead of compatriot Zandersaf Lombard (71).
A further shot back was group of four players, all of who looked as though they may steal the limelight on Sunday before fading - Swede Bjorn Akesson (68), England’s Anthony Wall (72), Daniel Im (70) from the U.S. and home hope Justin Walters (69).
The three top-ranked players have also earned their place at he 145th British Open at Royal Troon in July - Porteous, Lombard and Wall, who qualifies ahead of the other players on 15-under-par by virtue of his world ranking.
Porteous, who missed the cut at last weekend’s South African Open after struggling with his game, said he played low-risk golf to keep himself ahead of the field.
“Words can’t describe how I feel, it’s surreal to be honest,” he said at the trophy presentation.
“I’ve been battling with my golf over the last few months and a lot of sweat and tears have brought me here.”
His accuracy off the tee was vastly improved and a feature of his solid final round.
“I had been battling for my driver for the past few days, but I started to hit a few more fairways today and a lot more greens to give myself a chance to make some birdies.
“Unfortunately the putts didn’t go in but I was keeping the pressure low and making sure I still made par.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here