Author name: michael

Former SA number one Bertine Strauss proved she is still a force to be reckoned with when she came from behind to steal victory in the Ekurhuleni 54-Hole Stroke Play Championship on Monday.

The 21-year-old from Koster in the North West Province dominated the local amateur scene for many years until she took up a golf scholarship at the University of Texas in August 2011. The psychology student just couldn’t resist the temptation to test herself against South Africa’s top ranked amateurs during her summer break home.

Nicole Garcia may have barely made the cut at the Mannings Heath Golf Club, but following the reprieve, the South African knuckled down to claim a top 25 finish in her English Womens Amateur Stroke Play debut in Sussex, England.

Disappointed after an opening 81, Garcia improved by six shots with a second round 75 to make the cut to 36 and ties on the number on 12-over-par 156. A third round 76 still left her hovering around the lower echelons of the leaderboard, but the 22-year-old Ekurhuleni golfer put everything she learned into producing a final round 73 that lifted her to joint 21^st on 17-over-par 305.

South Africa’s Magda Kruger and Bianca Theron completed the final round of the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden on Friday and will be off to the United Kingdom this weekend to prepare for the Girls British Open Amateur Championship at the Fairhaven Golf Club in Lytham St. Annes from 12-16 August.

– KwaZulu-Natal’s Michaela Fletcher claimed a share of third at the RB German Junior in Germany while compatriot Lara Weinstein shot to sixth in the final round at the Heddesheim Golf Club in Gut Neuzenhof on Thursday.

The 17-year-old golfer carded earlier rounds of 72 and 69 to move into the top three and closed with a 74 to finish on one-under-par 215, alongside Sunna Vidisdottir from Iceland in the World Junior Golf Series event.