An excellent day with the putter saw Pretoria’s Albert Venter to a superb final-round 66 and a playoff for the FBC Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare Golf Club, with the 26-year-old then sinking a 16-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to claim his maiden Sunshine Tour title on Sunday.

Venter had to hold off Stefan Wears-Taylor, who also shot 66 in the final round, and Louis Albertse (67) in the playoff after the trio all finished the tournament on 10-under-par.

They all parred the 18^th in the first playoff hole, but on their next attempt, Venter spun a sand-wedge from the fairway back to 16 feet from the pin and then nailed the birdie putt, with Albertse and Wears-Taylor unable to make their shorter putts.

Venter’s success with the putter was unexpected because the Silver Lakes golfer struggled with the short stick in the third round.

“I knew I needed to just keep grinding today, follow my processes, and my goal was to just get in contention on the back nine,” said Venter, who began the final round five shots off the lead.

He was playing with the American, Dan Erickson, who was off to a flyer – six-under after seven holes.

“So, he was the guy to catch and I just tried to stay in touching distance of him. Then I caught fire on the back nine and I just kept following my processes, just keeping the ball in play, hit the greens and make the putts,” Venter explained.

Saturday was a really bad putting day – 31 putts – for Venter, so he spent an hour or two on the green until he believed he found something. Eventually this extra effort with the putter paid off on Sunday with the prize.

Venter finished runner-up (his best finish on tour) in last September’s Sunshine Tour Invitational at Centurion Country Club, but two missed cuts in October probably cost him a top-50 finish in the final 2021/22 order of merit.

His victory on Sunday means none of that matters now and he said his big breakthrough felt surreal.

“At the moment, it’s still kind of surreal. To get to this professional level is hard enough, but then to win is a whole another level. It’s about belief and I can only thank my supporters, my coaching staff and family, who felt I was good enough. I would not be in this position without them,” Venter concluded.

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