The Scots did not believe it possible, but Johan de Beer gave it a good go.
The unheralded 18 year old Pretoria Country Club golfer teed up, on Saturday (31st May), in the 54 hole Bidwells Scottish Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship played on the Duke’s Course (par 71) in Fife, Scotland, as a complete unknown quantity.
Adrian Ford, 20 year old Durbanville Golf Club member, recorded 70 and 73, one under and two over par respectively, in the last two rounds, played today, to finish on a 72 hole aggregate of 283, one under par, in the French International Stroke Play Championship being played on the Veneuil layout of the Chantilly Golf Club, north of Paris.
The Protea team had a proverbial mountain to climb in the final day of their amateur golf Test Match against France, being played on the Veneuil course at Chantilly Golf Club north of Paris today. The four South African players, needed to win three of their four singles matches to share the Test Match. They managed to win two, halved one and lost one and so lost the Test Match by 3½ to 4½ points, coming agonisingly close to securing enough points to share the spoils against the French.
The Protea team may have been the stronger side when looking at player World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), however by the time the sun set today, on the Chantilly Golf Club north of Paris, it was clear that the rankings did not mean much as the less fancied French team dominated today’s play winning all but one of a maximum of four points.
Playing on a Links golf course in the north of Wales is testing at the best of times, non more so than over this weekend.
South Africa’s national amateur champion, 22 year old Jacques Blaauw, who plays most of his golf in the Boland, managed his way through the testing conditions to record a 72 hole score of 303, fifteen over par, giving him a share of 9th place in the 2008 Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship decided on Sunday at the Conwy Golf Club.
Cameron Johnston continued his fine run of form when he won the inaugural SA Mid-Amateur Stroke Play Championship at De Zalze Golf Club in Stellenbosch on Sunday.
This Johnston’s fourth win in just over a month after capturing the Cape Province Amateur, the Western Province Amateur Stroke Play and the Western Province Mid-Amateur Stroke Play in quick succession.
If the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) are anything to go by, the Protea team of Derik Ferreira (ranked 19), Jacques Blaauw (27), Adrian Ford (29) and Ryan Clarke (313) will start as the favourites to win the fourth annual amateur golf Test Match against France which starts tomorrow.
Free State and Northern Cape won the 2008 Inter-Provincial A-Section at Harrismith this year and Boland won the B Section.