Archive – Men

At 16 years, two months and 26 days, Mpumalanga teenager Thriston Lawrence became the youngest champion of the Sanlam South African Open Championship in the 106 year history of the event at Country Club Johannesburg on Friday. Playing with the steadfast persistence of a man many years his senior, the Nelspruit golfer fought his way into the records books with an emphatic 9&8 victory over Southern Cape’s Andrew Light. Lawrence not only bettered the previous youngest player record set by Desvonde Botes in 1991 by just over two months, but his winning margin was the biggest since Ettienne Groenewald lifted the trophy at Royal Johannesburg in 1980 with the same result.

One more victory and Mpumalanga teenager Thriston Lawrence could become the youngest player to lift the Sanlam South African Amateur Championship title since the prestigious tournament launched in 1906. The 16-year-old Nelspruit golfer dispatched South Africa’s number two Zander Lombard 2&1 in the morning quarterfinals and held his nerve to beat Country Club Johannesburg’s own Louis Taylor by the same margin to reach the final on Thursday. But the reigning SA Boys U-19 Match Play champion knows he is in for a tough battle against Southern Cape’s unheralded Andrew Light, who eliminated the last Scot standing to set up the first home final since 2009.

It’s down to unheralded Southern Cape golfer, Andrew Light, to break the Scottish stranglehold on the Sanlam SA Amateur Championship in this afternoon’s semi-finals at Country Club Johannesburg. The 23-year-old George golfer will go into battle against 17-year-old St Andrews golfer Ewan Scott, who is shouldering the hopes of a Scottish hat-trick in the country’s most prestigious amateur championship.

It’s never easy to compete against your sibling. Just ask formula 1 drivers Michael and Ralf Schumacher. Boxers Leon and Michael Spinks. Or tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams. If you want to reach the top, you just have to grin it and bear it, but it can get even tougher when the man you’re up against, is your mirror image.

The Taylor brothers from Harrismith usually pose a lethal combination when they combine for the same side, like when they played for Hilton’s first team cricket or the U-19 KZN hockey team. Having chosen a career in golf, the 23-year-olds both play out of Country Club Johannesburg, both represent Central Gauteng and, on Monday, both qualified for the match play stage. However, a cruel twist of fate set Louis and Eddie on a collision course on the same side of the draw. A meeting in the third round of the country’s most prestigious amateur event today was simply inevitable.

When four-time Major winner Ernie Els lifted the South African Amateur Championship title in 1986, his father Neels was the first person to share in the prestigious celebration. But Neels Els never expected to go through it all again. Twenty-seven years later, having covered miles of global fairways with his famed son in the last three decades, Els Snr was back where it all started, but this time, he was not just cheering on his grandson, Jovan Rebula, but doing bag-duty, as well. The 15-year-old nephew of Els made his debut in the country’s flagship amateur event on Sunday and Els Snr said this was an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up.

South Africa Special Olympics gold medallist Thomas Lugg set a new benchmark for Special Olympians world-wide when he made a historic debut in the 2013 Sanlam South African Amateur Championship at Country Club Johannesburg this week. The world’s number one Special Olympian golfer moved one step closer to his long-term goal to compete in the pro ranks when he lined up alongside the country’s top amateurs in the 36-hole Stroke Play Qualifier of the South African Golf Association’s flagship event on Sunday and Monday. Lugg’s achievement was made more significant by the fact that he qualified for the championship on merit, having shot a 67 at Glenvista to claim one of 25 spots on offer to a 42-man field.

South Africa’s top amateur golfer Haydn Porteous issued a stern warning to his contemporaries when he clinched the prestigious Proudfoot Trophy with an emphatic five stroke victory at the Sanlam SA Amateur Championship on Monday.

The overnight leader shot a four-under-par 68 at Country Club Johannesburg’s Rocklands course to win the 36-hole Stroke Play Qualifier with a winning score of 10-under-par 134.

Jade Buitendag’s putter caught fire on the back-nine of the Rocklands Course at Country Club Johannesburg and paved his way into the match play phase of this year’s Sanlam SA Amateur Championship. The 18-year-old East London golfer carded a two-under-par 70 that lifted him into a share for second at five-under alongside Southern Cape’s Jovan Rebula, who overcame club selection and accuracy issues to produce a five under 67. The pair trail overnight leader Haydn Porteous by one shot and, although the gap could widen and players in the afternoon could overtake them, the duo is certain of their match play spots.