State Mines Country Club amateur Dylan Mostert and rookie Kyle Barker executed a well-laid game plan to bag a pair of maiden IGT Challenge Tour titles in the Wanderers Better Ball Challenge on Wednesday, March 29.
The young golfers upstaged a strong cast of professionals for victory at the Wanderers Golf Club, including former SA Open champion Brandon Stone, multiple Sunshine Tour winners Tyrone Ferreira, Merrick Bremner and Ruan de Smidt and the 2016 Rookie of the Year Christiaan Bezuidenhout, a four-time former winner on the country’s premier golf development circuit.
Mostert and Randpark’s Barker racked up a total of 10 birdies – including a string of six around the turn – for a final round 10-under-par 62.
The duo celebrated a two-shot victory on 27 under 186 over Ferreira and Mark Williams, who combined for 63 in the final round.
Barker and Mostert began the final 18 holes in a tie for the lead with Bezuidenhout and rookie Combrinck Smit.
The pair both made four at the opening par five to keep pace with the co-leaders.
“Kyle birdied three, five and seven and at the eighth, his chip for eagle just lipped out, but we got the birdie to take the outright lead,” Mostert explained.
“At the ninth, I hit a flop shot to give and tapped in for birdie.”
The pair turned six under and kept the momentum going with a pair of gains at the 10th.
“I birdied 11 and Dylan made birdie at 12 to take us to nine under, but we both messed up at 13,” Barker said.
“Both of us overshot the green for three and walked off with bogeys.
“Dylan was in a tree at 14, but he got it on the green with his second and he holed a monster 40-footer for our last birdie.
“Then we just parred our way to the win.”
Mostert said they worked out a strategy for the final round and it panned out nearly perfectly.
“After two rounds, we knew the front nine was the scoring nine,” the State Mines golfer explained.
“We decided to chase birdies on the front nine to pull clear of the field.
“The back nine is a lot tighter, with three short holes and the par fours are a lot longer.
“There aren’t that many scoring opportunities, so we wanted a strong start and then let good course management guide us home.
“We stuck to the game plan and that carried us to the winner’s circle.”
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State Mines becomes a battleground
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