George Coetzee wins first European tournament outside South Africa
Fans of Pretoria's young golf sensation, George Coetzee, are excited about his newfound form and it looks like this talented young man is back on track to become South Africa's next major winner.
Since his school days he has been considered talented enough to be South Africa’s next golf king and a possible major winner.
However, injuries and other problems prevented Pretoria’s own George Coetzee from achieving more than his current 13 wins (five of them on the European tour) as a professional player or rising higher on the world rankings than his best so far of 41st in 2013.
However, it seems that the long break that the Covid-19 crisis caused in professional golf was just the right medicine for Coetzee.
He achieved his second victory on the international front in 10 days this past weekend when he won the 2020 Portugal Masters by two shots.
The South African did not put a foot wrong on Sunday afternoon, posting a spotless 66 that contained five birdies and some outstanding par saves to keep his card clean.
Coetzee began the day with a one-shot advantage but was knocked off the top of the leader board early on after parring his opening six holes in a patient start to his final round.
The 34-year-old made his first birdie of the day from 20 feet on the difficult seventh before picking up another shot from a similar distance on the short eighth to get to 13 under and regain his one stroke lead.
After making another gain from nine feet at the 11th, Coetzee made key par putts on the 12th and 13th to remain in front as the chasing pack began to gather just behind him on an incredibly bunched leader board.
He then holed brilliant birdie putts at the 16th and 17th to move to 16 under par and give himself a two-shot cushion heading to the 18th tee.
Coetzee saved his best drive for last and went on to make a nerveless par to win for the second week in a row, having also tasted victory at the Titleist Championship at Pretoria Country Club on the Sunshine Tour last week.
Englishman Laurie Canter finished alone in second on 14 under after he also made five birdies in a flawless 66, while his countryman and World Number 16 Tommy Fleetwood was another stroke back in a tie for third with Swede Joakim Lagergren.
Coetzee’s previous European Tour victories all came in Africa and he was delighted to make his breakthrough on European soil.
“Winning in Europe was the next step for me really. I have always had a list of things I wanted to achieve in my career as a golfer and originally, I never thought I would get as far as winning on the European Tour. So, ticking that box a while back was really nice, and then I started to realise that I was a bit comfortable playing back home and I needed to go to the next step and win away from home,” he said after his performance in Portugal.
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