Five eagles at celebrity tournament

The 20th anniversary edition of the prestigious Prince’s Grant National Amateur Invitational tournament (PGNAIT) teed off on Monday, May 2 in near perfect sunny conditions with very little wind.

As is the tradition, day one was also the Hugh Baiocchi celebrity golf day where invited special guests teamed up with players from the amateur tour in a four-ball alliance with two scores to count.

While the celebrity day may have been a little more relaxed, the two amateur tour players in each alliance still had to focus and play their best as their individual scores counted towards to overall tournament leader-board.

The day produced no less than five eagles on the par five sixth and 15th as well as the par four twelfth with two of those coming from Tristan Strydom.

Competition was fierce and the winners had to be determined by a count-out that turned out in favour of Barbara and Martin Rotteveel who teamed up with amateur tour players, Lindani Mthiyane and Danie van Niekerk to card an impressive 92 points.

In second place, also on 92 points were Robert Starkey, Riaan Boshoff and amateur tour players, Theunis Bezuidenhout and serial eagle scorer, Tristen Strydom.

Nearest to the pin on the short holes went to Monika Ellis on the third and amateur tour player, Greg McKay on the 11th.

The tournament continued on Tuesday morning with a testing round of 36 holes and concluded on Wednesday with a round of 18, to determine the champion over a total of 72 holes.

Find out who was king of the PGNAIT in next week’s tournament round-up in the Courier.

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