Local golf star scores biggest victory of his career
One of Pretoria's promising young golfers scored the biggest victory of his professional career last week.
Louis de Jager from Centurion won his fifth Sunshine Tour title last weekend when he took the Eye of Africa PGA Championship on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off to take his career play-off record to three out of three.
After finishing regulation play in a share of the lead on 12-under-par with Trevor Fisher Jr, the pair had to wait out a storm for nearly two hours before they could play their second shots on the play-off hole. In the end, De Jager was able to win with a simple par on the par-four 18th, while Fisher made a bogey.
“I’m glad to keep my play-off record up, and I’m proud of that. During the delay, I knew what I had to do, so even though there was a lot of pressure, I was able to hit it really close to the hole and I could just tap it in,” said De Jager after his victory.
The victory is easily the biggest in his career, coming as it did in the 96-year-old championship which has had some of the greatest names in South African golf win it.
“It’s a big trophy to have your name on. I’m really honoured. It’s been one of my goals and it feels great to have achieved it,” De Jager said.
The final round proved to be a difficult one for all the main protagonists, and Daniel Greene, who at one stage at the 13th held a three-stroke lead, fell out of contention with three bogeys in the final four holes to finish third.
Fisher bogeyed the par-three 16th, but pulled back that shot with a birdie on the par-five 17th before making par on 18 and losing out in the play-off.
In response, De Jager had dragged himself into contention with successive birdies on 13 and 14, but bogeyed the 17th before forcing the play-off.
It was the second victory of the 2018-19 Sunshine Tour season for De Jager, and with five other top-10s to his credit, he’s clearly the form man as the season draws to close.
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