Manie Esterhuizen bags Duckhook Durban Open at Prince’s Grant

The Durban Open, the second Major of the year was held at Prince’s Grant Coastal Golf Estate on Sunday the 14th of August.  

 

A gloomy and windy morning greeted the players as they were getting ready to take on this Championship Golf Course.

 

The windy conditions made it a challenging first 2 holes where the players needed to navigate out of bounds on the right and long, tall rough on the left. Defending champion Hayden Stone got off to a rocky start making 4 drop shots in the first 4 holes. Coming back strong on the following holes to give the advantage back to the field on the 7th hole. Hayden made a birdie on the 11th hole to bring him back into contention at the top of the leaderboard.  Unfortunately Hayden hit the ball out of bounds on the 15th to drop back and came in second over all for the day. Diyashil Chetty made a strong start to the day making sure to keep to his handicap shooting plus 2 to tie for second place with Hayden before the turn. Diashil could not keep up his strong performance and dropped back to T5 after the 16th hole where he unfortunately made a 10 after being next to the green in 3 shots.

 

Manie Esterhuizen double stroking most of the holes made it count after his battle on the 3rd hole where he made a 9. Coming back strongly, making a net eagle on the difficult par 5 6th hole to bring him back into the lead. Manie played some consistent golf and showed the rest of the players that you do not need to hit the ball very far making birdie on the signature hole where the wind was blowing at 35Kp/h.Manie unfortunately made another nine on the last hole but to drop 2 shots back. he kept the lead with his amazing golf and end of the day took the win on -2.

 

Congratulations to Manie on becoming our second Open champion,