He’s been labelled by many golf experts as South Africa’s next player to win a major title. On Sunday, Pretoria’s own George Coetzee came another step closer to that dream when he won the prestigious Tshwane Open with a brilliant display of golf.

Coetzee snatched away the title of 2015 Tshwane Open champion from 155 other top professional players. This victory ensured Coetzee his second win on the European Tour, after he also won the Joburg Open tournament last year.

Is also was his seventh victory since he joined the professional ranks.

Sunday’s victory was probably much sweeter for Coetzee, achieving it on his home course at Pretoria Country Club. It was on this course where he learned to play the game and where he won his first amateur tournament as a 10-year-old boy.

To make his win even better for local golfing fanatics, Coetzee had to chase the score of yet another local player, Jacques Blaauw, to win the tournament. Blaauw, a Centurion resident and member of the Els Club at Copperleaf in Centurion, where the first two Tshwane Open tournaments were played in 2013 and 2014, eventually finished second on Sunday.

At the end of the third round 29-year-old Blaauw was still tied for 22nd place after 206 shots (-4). But he shot a brilliant 61 on the last day of the tournament to tie up his score at 271 (-13), four strokes ahead of two other South Africans, Dean Burmester and Tjaart van der Walt and Craig Lee from Scotland.

Coetzee, however, was one of the leaders after the third round. With his overnight score on 201 (-9), Coetzee had to play at least five shots under par on the final day if he wanted to win the tournament. And that’s exactly what this Affies old boy did. He could fill in a flawless 65 on his scorecard for the last round, which included five birdies.

His final birdie was on the 17th hole which meant Coetzee just had to keep a cool head on the 18th and only had to play on par to win his second tournament on the European Tour before his home crowd.

The victory will probably improve Coetzee’s place on the official world golf rankings dramatically. He could move into the top 70 from his 87th place where he was ranked before the tournament.

With this victory Coetzee also managed to experience the biggest payday of his career. His prize money of €237,751 (R2 932 250) surely will make his bank manager smile. Blaauw also did not do too badly with his second place. He received €172,500 (R2 127 500) for the four days of hard work on the Pretoria Country Club’s course.