The First Major of the year, the Durban Masters was held at Durban Country Club on Sunday the 9th of May.
The exclusive field was made up of 16 Players who had accumulated the most Individual Stableford points over the four month qualifying cycle from January to April.
The Major contenders teed up on the links-style treeless championship layout among the sand dunes with the challenge of a Medal format, every stroke counting.
The opening Par 4 immediately took the players by surprise as the course was set up for the DCC club match play event final. Weather forecast could not have been better, a perfect Autumn day and wind expected to pick up in the afternoon making the back nine more challenging.
Play started off slow as the players needed to get used to the medal format. Andrew Godfrey playing his usual consistent golf took the lead at half way on -1, followed by Danie Nell on +2 and Tiaan Bekker on +4.
As expected the wind joined the party on the back nine and soon started taking its toll on the players. The 2020 Masters Champion, Tiaan Bekker looking to defend his Title began to catch up to Andrew Godfrey making 5 Par’s on the back nine and a tap in birdie on the 15th hole.
Andrew Godfrey reach the Final hole of the day on +2, a one shot lead on Tiaan on +3. A mistake by Andrew saw him pull his drive into the bushes on the left side of the fairway resulting in a double bogey to finish on +4. Tiaan carded a nett bogey on the 17th to tie for the lead on +4. Knowing par is what was needed on the 18th to force a play off , Tiaan pulled his driver onto the first tee box setting him a difficult up and down but managed to make par forcing a playoff to become the Masters Champion.
Playing the 18th as the play-off hole it was decided that it would be a stroke for stroke as it was the easiest hole on the course. Hitting first Tiaan almost drove the green and left him a 20m chip to set up a Birdie, while Andrew pushed his drive out to the right and it clips some trees. Driving up to his ball it was found out of bounds on the driving range leaving Tiaan shots to spare. He seal this Victory with a Par to successfully defended his Masters Title at Durban Country club.
The next Qualifying Cycle for the 2nd Major of the Season start in May and runs to August.
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Final Result
|
POS. |
PLAYER |
HCP |
TO PAR |
STROKES |
RANKING POINTS |
|
1 |
Tiaan Bekker |
9 |
+4 |
85 |
850 |
|
2 |
Andrew Godfrey |
6 |
+4 |
83 |
510 |
|
T3 |
Danie Nell |
14 |
+7 |
94 |
297,5 |
|
T3 |
Craig Van Dijk |
15 |
+7 |
94 |
297,5 |
|
5 |
Kobus Nel |
6 |
+8 |
86 |
204 |
|
6 |
Ashwin Ramchand |
14 |
+9 |
95 |
170 |
|
7 |
Andrew Cassells |
5 |
+11 |
88 |
153 |
|
T8 |
Jack Lamp |
6 |
+12 |
90 |
131,75 |
|
T8 |
Hayden Stone |
8 |
+12 |
93 |
131,75 |
|
10 |
Linoshin Moodley |
13 |
+14 |
99 |
119 |
|
11 |
Andrew Broughton |
16 |
+15 |
103 |
110,5 |
|
12 |
Anthoney Parmasur |
8 |
+18 |
98 |
102 |
|
13 |
Brendon Liebenberg |
19 |
+20 |
111 |
93,5 |
|
14 |
Aslam Nazeer |
16 |
+24 |
112 |
85 |
|
15 |
Deon Smith |
14 |
+29 |
115 |
80,75 |
|
DNF |
Marius Engelbrecht |
17 |
DNF |
DNF |
0 |