Branden Grace may have secured the ultimate honours in the Joburg Open yesterday, but David Drysdale, Marc Warren and George Murray kept up the early season feel-good factor for Scottish golf as they claimed top-10 finishes.
Hard on the heels of Alastair Forsyth's fifth place in the Africa Open and a runner-up spot for Martin Laird in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions last week, Drysdale and Warren tied for third in Johannesburg while Murray rallied to claim a tie for ninth.
Drysdale, who also took third in the Joburg event in 2009, closed with a five-under-par 67 for 273, 14 under, and was joined on that mark by Warren, who posted a 68 en route to his highest finish on the tour since he won the Johnnie Walker Championship in 2007.
The Scots duo finished three strokes behind Grace, who eased to a maiden tour victory, and the £169,770 top prize, with a 72 for 270. That left the 23-year-old q-school graduate one shot clear of the rampaging Englishman, Jamie Elson, who made a late title charge with a nine-under 63.
Drysdale, who reeled of five birdies in a tidy round, and Warren, who was just a stroke behind at one stage after covering 10 holes in five under, both picked up cheques for £44,468.
"This is the best start to a year I've ever had," said Warren. "I wanted to come out of the blocks pretty quickly, but there's still room for improvement."
Murray, meanwhile, showed his battling qualities as he fought back from an early double-bogey to fire a spirited 67 for 274 and earn £20,297 for a top-10 placing. Runner-up in November's Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, Murray racked up a 5 on the par-3 fifth but responded with a haul of seven birdies which included four in a row from the sixth.
Craig Lee, who tied for eighth in the Africa Open last weekend, recorded another solid finish as he shared 17th on 278 after a 70. Scott Jamieson slipped back into a tie for 24th with a 74 for 279, while Forsyth had to settle for 46th on 282 after a 71.
Meanwhile, Russell Knox will continue his rookie campaign on the PGA Tour in California this week when he joins fellow Scot Martin Laird in the field for the Humana Challenge. The Inverness exile marked his debut on the main US circuit with a pair of level-par 70s in the Sony Open in Hawaii but the Nationwide Tour graduate fell just a stroke short of the cut line.
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 hereComments are closed on this article