Rare double for Ekurhuleni golf teens
With their wins in the Aon SA Amateur Championships, Macnab and Jarvis both achieved the rare SA amateur double
Serengeti golfer Caitlyn Macnab claimed the biggest title in her golfing career, the Aon South African Stroke Play Championship, on her 18th birthday on Tuesday last week.
The teen signed for a final round of 68 on Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club’s West Course to finish on seven-under-par, winning by two strokes over Silver Lakes’ Larissa du Preez.
On Friday, GolfRSA’s number one-ranked amateur teamed up with top-ranked Casey Jarvis to cement their place in golfing history.
With their wins in the Aon South African Amateur Championships, Macnab and Jarvis both achieved the rare SA amateur double, winning the Aon Women’s and Men’s South African Stroke Play Championships and Amateur Championships in the same calendar year.
Astonishingly, in the first year that the women’s and men’s championships were played in the same week and at the same course, the extraordinary Ekurhuleni pair added to an even rarer piece of history.
The last time the double of the Aon South African Stroke Play Championship and the Aon South African Amateur Championship was achieved by both men and women was in 2007, when Ashleigh Simon and Louis de Jager prevailed.
Jarvis became the youngest champion in history of the SA Stroke Play Championship with his nine-stroke runaway victory at Randpark Golf Club a week ago and on Friday, the 16-year-old State Mines golfer ended the run of Scotland’s James Wilson with a comfortable seven and six victory on Royal Johannesburg & Kensington’s East Course.
Macnab celebrated her 18th birthday by claiming the SA Women’s Stroke Play Championship crown last week Tuesday and three days later, the Serengeti golfer downed 14-year-old Kyra van Kan four and three in the 36-hole match play final. She is the 13th calendar double champion of the women’s flagship events.
Jarvis is the 10th double winner since the SA Amateur Championship switched to a match play format in 1925.
Macnab was a huge favourite to win the final as the number one-ranked woman golfer in South Africa, but surprisingly she fell behind early to van Kan.
She was two down after the first 18 holes, but fought back and turned the match around, winning with a par on the 15th hole.
