No Mistry – Kajal’s on top form
RANDPARK – Kajal Mistry does Randpark Golf Club proud at Women's Amateur Stroke Play golf championships.
She may be a teenager but Randpark Golf Club‘s Kajal Mistry won the Women’s Amateur Stroke Play golf championship and followed it up with the SA Match Play title.
The 18-year-old Mistry, a GolfRSA elite squad member, went wire-to-wire in the SA Stroke Play with rounds of 70, 67 and 71 for an eight-under-par total of 208 to win by five from Caityn Macnab.
In the Match Play she sailed through the first four rounds before finding herself two down and in trouble through 15 holes against Kaylah Williams.
“But then Kaylah bogeyed 16 and I birdied 17 to square the match,” said Mistry. “We both made par at 18, both birdied the 19th and then I made birdie at the 20th to seal the deal.”
Mistry has been under the tutelage of highly-rated Randpark professional coach Darren Witter since the age of three.
She is also loyal to Randpark Golf Club. “It’s such a fantastic club, with two great, world-class golf courses (Firethorn and Bushwillow) and every practice facility imaginable. I’m here six days a week for six to seven hours, including at the gym which is right next to the driving range. It’s the perfect set-up.”
Mistry also won the SA Stroke Play in 2017, and between September 2016 and the end of 2017, amassed no less than 11 victories on home soil which saw her ranked number one in the country. That success rate dropped a little last year as a result of overseas travel and trying to sandwich her matric studies (in which she did very well) in between rounds of golf.
Now Mistry has landed a full four-year scholarship at the University of Arkansas in America, whose graduates include Stacy Lewis, who went on to be ranked number one in the world as a professional, John Daly and, most recently, Maria Fassi, who won 10 US College events before turning professional.
Mistry has just returned home from a trip to Northern Ireland’s celebrated Royal Country Down, where she took part in the Women’s Amateur Championship. Teeing up in a field of 144 of the world’s best amateurs, she did well to make it through the 36-hole Stroke Play qualifier and into the 64-player Match Play.
“I owe so much to my parents for all their support, to Darren as my coach, to Randpark and also to the Ernie Els Foundation who have been such a help with not only the golf but also stressing how important education is,” said Mistry, who was previously a national karate champion in her age-group.
Kajal’s best round to date has been a course record eight-under, sub-par 65 at Wingate Park, while she’s also shot 69 off the men’s tees on Randpark’s Firethorn. At Royal Harare, in the Zimbabwe Open, she broke a course record of 20 years standing with a three-under round, then went five-under the next day to lower her own mark.
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