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Chris Williams gave himself the perfect preparation for the upcoming US Senior PGA Championship at the end of May when he won the Nelson Mandela Bay Classic by a single stroke on the Sunshine Senior Tour at Humewood Golf Club on Thursday.

Williams closed with a round of 69 to win on three-under-par 213. He finished one stroke clear of Neil Cheetham who signed for a final round of 71. André Cruse, who battled Williams for the lead on the back nine, finished third on one-under 215 after a 71.

The timing of the victory couldn’t have been better for Williams. At the end of this month both he and James Kingston will travel to Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to play in the US Senior PGA Championship.

“It’s nice to have won like this just before you leave for a Major like that,” said Williams, who recently finished second to Kingston in the South African Senior Open.

“I won a small senior event at the beginning of the year. But this is my first big one since winning the South African Senior Open a couple of years ago. I haven’t hit the ball as well as I did for a long time. I’ve put new shafts in my irons and I was knocking the flagsticks out. And it was also great to beat such a quality field,” he said of a field that included several former Sunshine Tour campaigners who have recently joined the Sunshine Senior Tour ranks.

“We’ve got a lot of former Sunshine Tour players on the Sunshine Senior Tour now and the standard is very high. Then you look at the quality of golfers who are just about to become seniors, like a Keith Horne and an Adilson da Silva, and you realise we’re going to have a very competitive Sunshine Senior Tour in the future with so many star players coming through.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Michael Sheehan

Former European Tour professional Neil Cheetham battled a typically strong Humewood wind to shoot one of only four sub-par rounds on day two of the Sunshine Senior Tour’s Nelson Mandela Bay Classic on Wednesday, giving him a share of the lead with Centurion golfer Gerhard Scheepers.

Cheetham signed for a 71 while Scheepers produced the low round of the day with a 69 to see them tied for the lead on one-under-par 143 through 36 holes of this 54-hole tournament.

They are one stroke clear of the vastly experienced trio of Chris Williams, André Cruse and James Kingston. Kingston was the overnight leader but struggled to a 75 on Wednesday, while Williams posted a 73 and Cruse a 74.

The only other two players in the field who managed to break par on Wednesday were Mark McNulty and Doug McGuigan who both posted rounds of 71 to finish the day tied seventh on two over par.

“It was blowing four or five clubs at times. I can honestly say it was some of the most difficult conditions I can ever remember playing in. It was pure survival out there,” said Cheetham, who grew up playing links golf in England.

“Your ball flight and the shape of your shots was of vital importance. I think the most difficult thing was committing to certain shots, like instead of hitting an eight iron you’re now hitting a five iron the same distance when the wind is blowing like that.”

But Cheetham said he enjoyed the challenge posed by the typical links conditions.

“It brings out the shot-making in you, and stimulates your imagination with shots. It takes me back to my European Tour days and having to see shots and commit to shots.”

Scheepers, who plays most of his golf on the highveld, did exceptionally well with his 69 in conditions that are quite foreign to him. 

“The wind blew from the moment we teed off until the end of the round. I just decided that I wasn’t going to fight the wind all day and would just try and keep my ball in play,” he said.

And his short game carried him to the top of the leaderboard.

“My putting saved me today. There were a couple of times where I made some big putts for par. I’m just going to try and do the same in the final round. I don’t want to think too much about it actually, especially not when I look at the experience of the professionals I’m playing with.”

Experience will certainly be the key in Thursday’s final round.

“You know, the conditions could be different again,” said Cheetham. “But that’s where the experience comes in. You need to keep an open mind and see what tomorrow brings.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Michael Sheehan

James Kingston continued where he left off on the Sunshine Senior Tour as he opened with a three-under-par 69 to lead the first round of the R500 000 Nelson Mandela Bay Classic at Humewood Golf Club on Tuesday.

Kingston, who recently defended his South African Senior Open title, leads by one shot over André Cruse and Roger Wessels.

The leaderboard remains tight thereafter as well, with Michael Scholz and Chris Williams well placed following their opening rounds of one-under 71. Amateur Muyanda Zingela made a good start to join Callie Swart and Neil Cheetham with rounds of level-par 72. And Mark McNulty, one of the biggest names in a quality field this week, signed for a three-over-par 75 in his first competitive round in several weeks.

Kingston was delighted with his start to this 54-hole tournament on a day when the classic Humewood links was in a forgiving mood.

“I would’ve taken a start of three under if you’d offered it to me before the tournament. The conditions were decent on my first nine and then the wind picked up a little bit, which just made it tricky enough to test us. But it’s always just such a pleasure coming back to what has always been a great golf course, and to the city of Gqeberha as well,” he said.

Kingston played Humewood’s back nine first and bogeyed his opening hole. But then he made back-to-back birdies at holes 15 and 16 followed by an eagle on the 17^th where he holed his pitch shot. Another loose shot on the second led to a double bogey there, but again Kingston pulled it back with three more birdies against just one bogey over the closing holes.

Kingston clearly used the competitive edge he gained by competing against the young stars on the Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour over the past three weeks.

“Obviously it’s nice to be able to compete with the young guys on the Sunshine Tour and it keeps the game sharp and the competitive juices flowing, even though it’s tough to beat the youngsters of today. But it’s nice to play with that next generation, and then come out here and play with your old fellow pros.

“It’s always nice to see all the old faces, and to see somebody like Mark McNulty out here still competing is great. There are so many of these players I grew up playing golf with, and to share the fairways with them on our only proper links, which is in pristine condition, is just a wonderful feeling.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Michael Sheehan

Wilco Nienaber made it a hat-trick of victories for South Africa in three consecutive weeks on the European Challenge Tour when he won the Dimension Data Pro-Am in a playoff at Fancourt on Sunday.

After finishing tied for the lead with Swede Henric Sturehed on 19 under par on the Montagu course, Nienaber claimed his first professional title with a par on the third playoff hole.

“I’m so excited and quite emotional. It’s a lot of hard work that I put in to get this win,” said a tearful Nienaber, who struggled to get through his victory speech as he tried to explain the emotion of not being able to have his family at the golf course to celebrate with him.

“I’m a very family-orientated guy. We have a very close bond in our family. A lot of this is thanks to them that I was able to win today. It’s crazy how much they have supported me,” he said.

The R6 million Dimension Data Pro-Am was the last of the three tournaments that formed part of the Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour’s co-sanctioned South African Swing.

Brandon Stone won the opening Limpopo Championship and JC Ritchie claimed the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open, and then Nienaber completed the local dominance with his victory at Fancourt.

Nienaber started the final round three strokes behind the leaders. After thinking he had missed his chance when he made a bogey on the par-five ninth hole, Nienaber produced a strong back nine of five birdies to make it into the playoff with a 65. Sturehed signed for a bogey-free 66 to seal his spot in the playoff.

Playing the par-five 18^th in the playoff, both golfers parred the hole twice before Nienaber won with a par to Sturehed’s bogey on the third occasion.

“I had a target to get to -20 in regulation play and I messed it up on nine. I felt like I gave it away there with that six. So I had an attacking mindset for the back nine. I needed to go out and win it. He wasn’t coming back and he was holing every putt he looked at,” said Nienaber.

“It’s great having a Challenge Tour card, but that’s not the goal. I need to start playing on the European Tour again and hopefully get into a few Majors next year.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

South Africa’s Jaco Ahlers will seek to become only the third golfer in the 26-year history of the Dimension Data Pro-Am to win the title twice as he heads into Sunday’s final round at Fancourt tied for the lead with American Chase Hanna.

Ahlers signed for a bogey-free 68 on the Outeniqua course on Saturday to top the leaderboard on 15 under par alongside Hanna, who posted a third round of 64. They are two strokes clear of the field, with Stanislav Matus and Henric Sturehed their nearest challengers.

The illustrious history of the Dimension Data Pro-Am has seen some of the biggest names in world golf win this title, including Mark McNulty, Nick Price, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Paul Lawrie. But to date, only two golfers have managed to win it twice.

The first to do so was Nick Price in 1997 and 1998, and he was followed by Darren Fichardt in 2004 and 2010. Ahlers will look to join this exclusive club of champions as he tries to add to his 2018 triumph in this event.

“I’ll take that,” he said after a third round in which he hit the ball superbly but just couldn’t make the putts before he birdied the last for a share of the lead.

“Unfortunately the putter was very cold today. But I’m still in a share of the lead and we’re two shots ahead of third place at the moment which is nice.”

An unwilling putter forced Ahlers to rely on the one area of his game which he been working very hard on.

“Patience. I’ve struggled in the past with patience, and today was all about patience. I hit the ball so well but just didn’t make putts. I missed a really short one on 17 which left a sour taste in my mouth. But if I didn’t have the patience I probably wouldn’t have birdied the last hole to tie for the lead. I’ll work on the putting and just get a bit more comfortable with that. My ball striking is good and I know this place well enough. I just need to make a few putts.”

His co-leader, Hanna, also relied heavily on patience to get him to this point.

“I stayed patient pretty much all week and I kind of knew a low one was there and it happened to come today. It’s exciting. I haven’t been in contention out here so I’m just looking forward to the final day and seeing how I’ll handle it.”

Another former champion in George Coetzee, winner here in 2016 and runner-up last year, will certainly keep them both focused on the job at hand as he heads into the final round just four shots off the lead. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

It’s the round Wilco Nienaber has been looking for, and it’s given him the opportunity he’s been looking for. With a 64 on Fancourt’s Outeniqua course on Friday, Nienaber heads into the weekend of the R6 million Dimension Data Pro-Am tied for the lead and relishing being in contention.

“It’s great. This is what you play for. I’m really looking forward to the weekend, and this is a nice place to be in contention as well,” he said at the end of a second round which saw him tied for the lead on 11 under alongside fellow South African Jaco Ahlers and Swede Henric Sturehed.

They are one stroke clear of the trio of Niklas Moller, Stanislav Matus and Michael Hoey. George Coetzee, who won here in 2016 and finished second last year, is also right in the mix just two strokes off the lead. And Frenchman Jeong Weon Ko produced an incredible 62 on the Outeniqua, including five birdies to start his round as he went out in 29 to eventually finish on a total of nine under.

A total of 10 players were unable to finish because of poor light and will complete their second rounds on Saturday morning.

There was almost a feeling of relief from Nienaber as his round of eight under has given him a shot at glory in this Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour co-sanctioned event.

“I definitely feel like this has been coming for a while. After the Limpopo Championship, I feel like I’ve been hitting it well and making putts. Today I had one stressful hole, but the rest was pretty easy. A 64 is always a really nice score. There were definitely more chances that I didn’t take, but it’s great coming off the course with a score of -8 and knowing you still left a few out there. I’m happy.”

It was a round built on a fabulous start of an eagle and two birdies in his first three holes (for this tournament, the players playing the back nine of Outeniqua first tee off the 11^th and finish on the 10^th).

“I think my start just launched me into a really good mindset. It made me believe I don’t have to push too hard. It’s always nice to be four under through three. The conditions were great. The wind flicked around a bit towards the end which made some of the approaches interesting, but the greens were soft and spinning quite a bit. It was a lovely day to play golf.”

Ahlers also played the Outeniqua on Friday, and similarly he knew he needed to take advantage.

“The Outeniqua is a lot shorter and you have a lot more wedges going into it. You can’t stagnate on the Outeniqua. You need to go out and make birdies. On Montagu, if you shoot two under par it’s a good round, but not on Outeniqua,” the winner of the 2018 Dimension Data Pro-Am said after his 66.

“Being an ambassador at Fancourt helps a lot in terms of knowing these courses well. I can work off experience here. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. I haven’t played as well as I know I can over the past few weeks, so this is nice to have a bit of form going into the weekend.”

And Ahlers is also well aware of just how big this weekend can be for the champion.

“This is probably one of the biggest tournaments they’ll have on the Challenge Tour’s regular season. If you can pull off a win here you’re basically 70% of the way to a European Tour card. And then as always you have the invite to the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational as well. It’s a massive event for our Sunshine Tour.”

Sturehed was the only one amongst the three leaders who played the more challenging Montagu course on Friday, signing for a solid 66.

“The Montagu is quite a strategic course. I managed to place the ball on the right side of the pins, which was key. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. This is a fantastic venue. Both courses are fantastic, and everything around here is magnificent,” he said. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Veteran professional Darren Fichardt has played a few rounds with top young amateur Casey Jarvis in professional events recently, and believes the 17 year old has a very big future in the game.

“He’s an amazing young talent,” Fichardt said at this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt, where Jarvis is enjoying his third consecutive week playing with the professionals after the GolfRSA National Squad member was given an invitation by the Sunshine Tour to compete in this South African Swing of events co-sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour. The young golfer started well with an opening 70 that left him eight-shot off the first-round lead.

Fichardt played with Jarvis in last year’s South African Open, and then again in last week’s Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open and is highly impressed.

“He’s got a lot of fire and passion, and an unbelievable short game. I think he’s going to be very exciting to watch in the future. I think Casey is going to be an awesome talent.”

Jarvis missed the cut in the Limpopo Championship and the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open. But it was his performance at Royal Cape Golf Club in Cape Town that caught the eye of multiple Sunshine Tour and European Tour champion Fichardt.

“I played with him for the first two rounds in Cape Town. He had a lot of bad breaks at Royal Cape Golf Club. The way he handled himself and came out of that was impressive for a 17-year-old. He needed to shoot four under over the last three holes to make the cut, and he went three under with an eagle, birdie and then just missed the final birdie to make it.

“He’s got a lot of fight. You can see why he’s won a lot of amateur tournaments. I’m very excited to see what he does when he’s in contention. I think he must be amazing when he’s in contention because he’s just got that fighting killer instinct.”

Jarvis certainly has the results to back up the belief in his potential. In 2020, at the age of 16 years six month and 17 days, he became the youngest winner of the South African Stroke Play Championship after posting rounds of 66-65-67-65 for a total of 25 under par top finish nine strokes better than his nearest competitor.

Then he completed the double by winning the South African Amateur Championship, beating Scotland’s James Wilson 7&6 in the final. To this he added victory in several of GolfRSA’s biggest provincial Opens. His victory in the Gauteng North Open in particular came after rounds of 69-63-64-63 for an eight-stroke victory. He ended the year with another major milestone, winning the Freddie Tait Trophy as the leading amateur in the South African Open Championship after finishing tied 25^th overall. He was only the second golfer since 1969 to achieve the treble of the SA Amateur Stroke Play, SA Amateur and Freddie Tait Trophy in the same year.

And in this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am, the young star is hoping to continue learning from the professionals.

“It’s been great to play in these tournaments. I’ve learned a lot over the last few weeks. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you’ve just got to stay calm. All these pros are calm out here when something goes wrong. You’ve just got to stay calm and positive and stick to your gameplan. The pros out here are just so good. You need to be playing well every single week if you want to win,” said Jarvis.

Jarvis is planning to take this experience back to the amateur ranks, where he hopes to compete for honours in the biggest titles in the game as one of GolfRSA’s elite national players.

“I’m hopefully going to go over to the US Amateur and British Amateur this year and next year. I want to gain as much experience there as well and try and win one of the big ones. That’s the plan. I’ll definitely be taking what I’ve learned here back to amateur golf and hopefully I can win again soon.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

A bit of golf advice from Jack Nicklaus, and then personal advice from a friend all paid off for England’s Ryan Evans as he signed for a 10-under-par 62 on the Outeniqua golf course at Fancourt on Thursday to lead the first round of the Dimension Data Pro-Am by one stroke.

The first two rounds of this Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour event are split between the Outeniqua and Montagu courses, and the Outeniqua was certainly in a giving mood on a wet and overcast morning.

Evans took full advantage with 11 birdies and only one bogey to give himself the edge over Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey on nine under par, and fellow Englishman Daniel Gavins on eight under. Merrick Bremner is the leading South African with an opening round of seven-under-par 65 on the Outeniqua. And GolfRSA National Squad amateur Casey Jarvis made a good start to his week with a round of two-under 70 on the Montagu course.

But it was Evans’s mental approach that made all the difference as he was inspired by the advice from Nicklaus and a friend.

“A friend of mine in America is Tom Watson’s manager, and he invited me around to Jack Nicklaus’s home for drinks. Mr Nicklaus showed me around his home and all of his major trophies. It was just an amazing hour of chatting with the greatest golfer of all time. I asked him what his favourite golf course was and he said, ‘I loved every single course I played’. He told me you have to go to every tournament and love every golf course because you’re there to win and there’s no point complaining about conditions or complaining about the golf course. Every course you go to must be the best course you’re going to play,” said Evans.

“And then I had a chat with a friend yesterday and I said I felt like I was taking bad results into the next week. He said just let it go and asked me why I started playing golf as a kid. I told him it was because I loved it. And he just said go out there and love the game. So I went out there with the mentality that I’m here to enjoy what I do.”

Another man who enjoyed every bit of his first round was Hoey. He also played the Outeniqua on day one and was delighted with a bogey-free 63.

“I basically retired and had lost a bit of interest in the game, so I didn’t have great expectations coming out to South Africa. I just thought I’m going to come to South Africa and enjoy it because I always love the food and weather here. So this is a nice bonus. I made some outrageous putts. It’s nice to feel the nerves again as well,” he said.

The low scoring all came on the Outeniqua, with Englishman Matthew Baldwin’s 66 the low round on the Montagu on Thursday. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

A bit of time off and the recent flurry of South African victories on the European Tour and European Challenge Tour has seen George Coetzee arrive at Fancourt for this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am refreshed, regrouped and excited to get going in Thursday’s first round.

The R6 million tournament is one of the longest standing on the Sunshine Tour dating back to 1996 and is co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour. It also features on the Sunshine Ladies Tour schedule, with their tournament coinciding with the men this week.

All of which puts an already world-class golf resort even more in the spotlight this week.

And it certainly brings a smile to Coetzee’s face as he returns to a place he loves and as part of a field also including recent European Tour champion Daniel van Tonder, recent Challenge Tour winners Brandon Stone and JC Ritchie, rising stars Wilco Nienaber and Jayden Schaper, GolfRSA National Squad member and top amateur Casey Jarvis, and a number of South African and international golfers who’ve been in contention over the past few weeks.

“This is the probably the first event on my schedule every year. I’m always excited to come here,” said Coetzee.

“I love this place. It allows me to also sneak in a couple of surf sessions and get my mind off golf. But it’s a pleasure to come to a resort like this where you can fully focus on golf.”

Coetzee is playing his first tournament since two tournaments in Kenya in March, and this event provides him the perfect opportunity to work on certain parts of his game while also preparing for this month’s PGA Championship.

“I played in Kenya and then I felt like I needed a couple of weeks to clear my mind and work on the right things with my game. So I took two weeks off to switch off completely, and now I’ve regrouped and got a good plan in place, and hopefully my golf will show that,” he said.

Coetzee was the first South African to win on the European Tour after lockdown in September last year, and it sparked a flurry of South African winners including Garrick Higgo, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Justin Harding, Daniel van Tonder and Dean Burmester on the European Tour, and in the past two weeks in South Africa, Stone and Ritchie in these Challenge Tour co-sanctioned events.

“We’re all a very competitive bunch of players. Even though we want to beat each other, we also feed off each other’s wins. So seeing the others win gives you confidence because we all come from the same home Tour with the same opportunities,” he said.

For this week, the Sunshine Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour fields will each be split in half and play the Outeniqua and Montagu courses at Fancourt on alternating days for the first and second rounds. Thereafter, the Sunshine Tour field will be cut to the top 60 and ties, and the Sunshine Ladies Tour field to the top 30 and ties. The Sunshine Ladies Tour will then play the final round of their 54-hole tournament at the Outeniqua on the Saturday, while the Sunshine Tour will play the final two rounds of their 72-hole tournament on the Montagu. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour