Sugrue and Rafferty survive the carnage at punishing Leopard Creek
Reigning Amateur champion James Sugrue stayed in touch with a third round 78 on a tough scoring day to sit two off the pace on one-under 215 with 18 holes to play in the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Leopard Creek. Credit Ernest Blignault.
It's become a case of the survival of the fittest in the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship after a day of carnage at Leopard Creek.
Overnight leader Ryan van Velzen began the day with a seven-shot lead on 14-under and ended it tied with compatriot Martin Vorster, the reigning East of Ireland champion, on three-under.
The teenager dropped nine shots in a brutal three-hole stretch, six of them going as he pumped three balls in the water at the par-three seventh and ran up a sextuple-bogey nine en route to an 83.
The South African pair lead by two strokes on three-under-par from Amateur champion James Sugrue, who was leading on his own for a spell until followed two bogeys with a triple-bogey seven at the 16th in a 78 that leaves him two behind, alone in third place on one-under.
Punishing pin positions, sweltering heat and a capricious, 30 km per hour wind made Leopard Creek such a beast that just seven of the 84-strong field broke par, and the 54-hole cut fell at 15-over par.
Three of those sub-par rounds came from Irish players with Carton House's Keith Egan unlucky to finish a shot outside the cut mark after a 71 and Matthew McClean rallying from a second-round 82 with a 70 to share 24th on eight-over.
A 71 for Dundalk's Caolan Rafferty catapulted him from 16 shots off the lead to just four back on one-over after a round featuring a bizarre hole-in-one after a "duffed" wedge from 148 yards at the 12th.
"I got the yardage, picked a club, and tried to hit a shot," said Rafferty, who is tied for fifth. "It was one of those funny ones. I didn't really catch it and turned away in a bit of disgust.
"As I was turning back, I heard my playing partner telling it to go in, and I was like, 'Sorry, that can't be right!' And as I turned round, it just disappeared!"
Sugrue was less than thrilled with his 78 after a late triple-bogey left him with a sour taste in his mouth for the second day running.
He played the first 13 holes in a creditable one-over-par, but after bogeys at the 14th and 15th, he took six at the par-three 16th. After finding sand over the green, he watched his tricky recovery trickle through the other side into the water, then plugged when forced to drop in the bunker to play his fifth.
"It was pretty windy today and it was also extremely warm," the Corkman said after making just one birdie compared to eight in his second round 68.
"There were also some cheeky pin positions out there, so it was playing tough. Maybe not [78 tough]. My score wasn't a great reflection. But it was probably a few shots tougher than yesterday.
"Caolan teed off just in front of me and it looked like he hit a five-iron, so I took one club less and flew the green into the bunker. When I got into the bunker, it looked like a tricky bunker shot, but I probably didn't give it the respect it deserved.
"I hit it onto the green, and it just trickled, trickled, trickled across the green into the water. Then I had to drop it in the bunker again, and it plugged. So I just hacked it out sideways and two-putted for a triple. It was a triple without really hitting a bad shot, so I am not happy about that one.
"With a triple, you have to make three birdies to get those shots back and today birdies were hard to come by. And for it to happen on my third last hole, I didn't have much chance of getting it back.
"I am playing well, but today, the ball wouldn't go in the hole, I missed so many putts."
Holywood teenager Tom McKibbin is tied for 14th on five-over after an excellent 73 featuring three bogeys and two birdies while Naas' Robert Brazill complete an impressive comeback from an opening 84 by following a 72 with a 73 that featured an eagle three at the par-five 18th — sweet revenge for the nine he made there on the first day.
Brazill made the cut with a shot to spare, but Hermitage's Rowan Lester missed out by two strokes after an 82.
The Dubliner took nine at the par-five 15th and while he fought back with birdies at the 16th and 17th, he could only par the last on a day when Massereene's Tiarnan McLarnon suffered badly and signed for a 94.
Team South Africa stormed through the half-gap given them by Team South Africa Junior to race a five-stroke victory in the team competition thanks to two-under-par 70s for Casey Jarvis and Samuel Simpson and Vorster's four-over 76.
Team Ireland was able to edge ahead of England for third place in the team contest thanks to Sugrue, McKibbin and Rafferty.
Overnight leader Van Velzen was cruising along at level par after the sixth and then simply imploded.
"I was playing nicely up until then," he said of his nine at the seventh. "I tried to go for the flag, and just came out of it and blocked it right in the water. I dropped one and goofed it in the water again; dropped another and hit it in the water again; knocked it on and two-putted.
"That just rattled me for the rest of the round. I didn't really know what was going to come when I hit it. It was like a lucky packet," he laughed.
Vorster also found conditions tough, but he kept himself in the game as he made three birdies in eight holes coming home to offset the three bogeys and two doubles.
"It was a grind today," he said. "I actually hit the ball pretty well, but some shots just didn't go my way and I ended up making doubles. In the conditions, I'm happy with the way I actually played."
Like many of the overseas players, Sugrue found conditions made playing well difficult.
Jarvis is one stroke behind Sugrue in fourth going into the final round, and Simpson shared fifth with Rafferty, England's Olly Huggins, who carded a level-par 72, and South Africa's Jordan Duminy.
"I'm very proud of the boys," said captain Kyle De Beer, who was a last-minute call-up after former number one Jayden Schaper joined the paid ranks at the Sunshine Tour's Limpopo Championship.
"We overcame a huge deficit and we were quite dominant in the team side of things today. It's a tough stretch to finish on that back nine, because conditions were so tough and that makes the win that much more special."
African Amateur Strokeplay, Leopard Creek (Par 72)
Detailed scores / Course planner / Final round tee-times
After 54 holes (RSA unless stated)
213 Martin Vorster 70 67 76, Ryan van Velzen 64 66 83
215 James Sugrue (Irl) 69 68 78
216 Casey Jarvis 72 74 70
217 Samuel Simpson 76 71 70, Olly Huggins (Eng) ) 76 69 72, Caolan Rafferty (Irl) 74 72 71, Jordan Duminy 69 74 74
218 Haider Hussain (Eng) 70 71 77
219 Yurav Premlall 72 75 72, Gustav Andersson (Swe) 70 76 73
220 Keagan Thomas 78 72 70, Gregory McKay 72 71 77
221 Tom McKibbin (Irl) 75 73 73, Tom Vaillant (Fra) 75 72 74, Connor Wilson (Sco) 73 68 80, Liam van Deventer 71 69 81, Christo Lamprecht Jnr 67 71 83
222 Altin van der Merwe 73 75 74, Rigardt Albertse 71 71 80
223 James Wilson (Sco) 77 71 75, Joseph Long (Eng) 74 68 81, Algot Kleen (Swe) 68 74 81
224 Peter Handcock (Eng) ) 75 74 75, Luca Filippi 75 71 78, Kyle de Beer 74 78 72, Lewis Irvine (Sco) 74 73 77, Matthew McClean (Irl) 72 82 70; Robin Williams (Eng) 70 70 84
225 Tyran Snyders 78 77 70, Jake Bolton (Eng) 75 73 77, Martin Couvra (Fra) 75 72 78, Siyanda Mwandla 74 76 75
226 Andrew Williamson 76 77 73, Nicolas Muller (Fra) 75 77 74, Adam Wallin (Swe) 72 73 81
227 Ayden Senger 78 72 77, Aurelien Douce (Fra) 73 76 78
228 Hugo Thyr (Swe) 79 71 78, Sam Bairstow (Eng) 79 71 78, Christiaan Maas 77 70 81, Therion Nel 75 79 74
229 Robert Brazill (Irl) 84 72 73, Wilmer Edero (Swe) 80 74 75, Nikhil Gopal 73 74 82
230 Stuart Easton (Sco) 76 79 75, Drikus Joubert 75 77 78, Nikhil Rama 73 76 81
231 Jordan Burnand 79 77 75, Darren Howie (Sco) 77 73 81, Hugo Archer (Fra) 75 79 77, Pierre Pellegrin 74 76 81
Missed cut
232 Keith Egan (Irl) 81 80 71, Elliot Anger (Fra) 76 78 78, James Biggs (Eng) 75 77 80
233 Christiaan Burke 82 71 80, Rowan Lester (Irl) 79 72 82, Rasmus Jonasson (Swe) 77 78 78
234 Francois van der Walt 80 73 81, Lucas Abrial (Fra) 77 78 79
235 Oswin Schlenkrich 82 79 74, Oliver Goldhill 75 81 79, Jay Pandya (Ind) 74 81 80, Theo Boulet (Fra) 73 77 85
236 Stephen Roger (Sco) 78 78 80, Aneurin Gounden 75 83 78
238 Gregg Gilson 84 81 73, Daniel Nduva 81 78 79, Joe Harvey (Eng) 77 79 82
241 Rohan Dholepatil (Ind) 83 76 82
242 Rasheed Mohamed (Zim) 83 82 77, Luhan Bester 82 77 83, Rakesh Channoo (Mri) 79 77 86
244 Oliver Brown 83 74 87
245 Anirudh Kamireddypalli (Ind) 84 79 82
246 Tiarnan McLarnon (Irl) 75 77 94
250 Promise Sombrero (Zim) 85 79 86, Morton Kombai 81 85 84
252 Graeme Derek Lewis 87 80 85, Mandla Dlamini 82 86 84
253 Florent Toulet 80 86 87
261 Dil Thomas 90 87 84
WD Armand van Dyk 75 79, Monty Scowsill (Eng).
Team Competition
Final
Round 3 - Singles: Best 3 scores of 4 to count
640 Team South Africa 216 Martin Vorster 70 Casey Jarvis 72 Kyle de Beer 74; 212 Martin Vorster 67 Samuel Simpson 71 Casey Jarvis 74; 212 Casey Jarvis 70 Samuel Simpson 70 Kyle de Beer 72
645 Team South Africa Juniors 210 Ryan van Velzen 64 Jordan Duminy 69 Christiaan Maas 77; 210 Ryan van Velzen 66 Christiaan Maas 70 Jordan Duminy 74; 225 Tyran Snyders 70 Jordan Duminy 74 Christiaan Maas 81
652 Team Ireland 1 218 James Sugrue 69 Caolan Rafferty 74 Tom Mckibbin 75; 212 James Sugrue 68 Rowan Lester 72 Caolan Rafferty 72; 222 Caolan Rafferty 71 Tom Mckibbin 73 James Sugrue 78
664 Team England 219 Robin Williams 70 Joseph Long 74 Jake Bolton 75; 209 Joseph Long 68 Robin Williams 70 Sam Bairstow 71; 236 Jake Bolton 77 Sam Bairstow 78 Joseph Long 81
668 Team Sweden 1 210 Algot Kleen 68 Gustav Andersson 70 Adam Wallin 72; 223 Adam Wallin 73 Algot Kleen 74 Gustav Andersson 76; 235 Gustav Andersson 73 Algot Kleen 81 Adam Wallin 81
671 Team Ireland 2 228 Matthew Mcclean 72 Tiarnan McLarnon 75 Keith Egan 81; 229 Robert Brazill 72 Tiarnan McLarnon 77 Keith Egan 80; 214 Matthew Mcclean 70 Keith Egan 71 Robert Brazill 73
671 Team Scotland 227 Lewis Irvine 74 Stuart Easton 76 James Wilson 77; 217 James Wilson 71 Lewis Irvine 73 Darren Howie 73; 227 Stuart Easton 75 James Wilson 75 Lewis Irvine 77
678 Team France 1 225 Hugo Archer 75 Nicolas Muller 75 Tom Vaillant 75; 228 Tom Vaillant 72 Nicolas Muller 77 Hugo Archer 79; 225 Nicolas Muller 74 Tom Vaillant 74 Hugo Archer 77
690 Team Sweden 2 236 Rasmus Jonasson 77 Hugo Thyr 79 Wilmer Edero 80; 223 Hugo Thyr 71 Wilmer Edero 74 Rasmus Jonasson 78; 231 Wilmer Edero 75 Hugo Thyr 78 Rasmus Jonasson 78
692 Team France 2 224 Theo Boulet 73 Martin Couvra 75 Elliot Anger 76; 227 Martin Couvra 72 Theo Boulet 77 Elliot Anger 78; 241 Martin Couvra 78 Elliot Anger 78 Theo Boulet 85
721 Team India 241 Jay Pandya 74 Rohan Dholepatil 83 Anirudh Kamireddypalli 84; 236 Rohan Dholepatil 76 Anirudh Kamireddypalli 79 Jay Pandya 81; 244 Jay Pandya 80 Rohan Dholepatil 82 Anirudh Kamireddypalli 82
723 Team Mauritius 233 Pierre Pellegrin 74 Rakesh Channoo 79 Florent Toulet 80; 239 Pierre Pellegrin 76 Rakesh Channoo 77 Florent Toulet 86; 251 Pierre Pellegrin 81 Dil Thomas 84 Rakesh Channoo 86
736 Team Zimbabwe 249 Morton Kombai 81 Rasheed Mohamed 83 Promise Sombrero 85; 241 Promise Sombrero 79 Graeme Derek Lewis 80 Rasheed Mohamed 82; 246 Rasheed Mohamed 77 Morton Kombai 84 Graeme Derek Lewis 85
