South Africa bags All-Africa title for the 16th consecutive time

HENNIE du Plessis, who hails from Limpopo, and his fellow South African junior golf teammates, Jovan Rebula, Altin van der Merwe and Kyle McClatchie defended South Africa’s 16th consecutive All-Africa Junior Golf Challenge champion’s title in Lusaka, Zambia, last week.

The South African squad had an unassailable 21-shot lead after three rounds to eventually celebrate a 35-stroke victory over neighbouring country Zimbabwe.

Du Plessis and his teammates combined well for a final round of 216 to end the week’s tournament with a victorious score of 873.

For Zimbabwe to overtake the South African score in the final round would have taken a mammoth effort and the South Africans cruised to another All-Africa Junior Golf title.

In the final round Du Plessis’ teammate, Van der Merwe, shot a two under par 70 to set his best round of the week.

Du Plessis added a final 75 to add to the South African team’s winning tally.

Teammate Rebula made 71 in his final round, which was also his lowest total for the week. McClatchie carded a non-counting 77.

Unlike in the first round where golfers enjoyed fine weather, gusting winds and much colder temperatures in the morning hampered the South Africans from stretching their overall lead, but they were still able to maintain the lead. Du Plessis helped ensure South Africa’s lead in the team standings when he shot a round of 71, one shot behind the leader, Kelvin Chibuye from Zambia.

Du Plessis and McClatchie both suffered from a stomach bug in the second round and Du Plessis struggled on to a miserable 82, South Africa’s overall team standing on the leader board was salvaged by Rebula and McClatchie who both shot a round of 74, with Van der Merwe one shot behind on 75. Du Plessis was expected to bounce back to help set the country on course for yet another epic victory this year.

In the first round, South Africa recorded 220 and in the second round 223 to maintain a lead of 443, with Zimbabwe in second place with 454, scoring 232 in the first round and a strong 222 in the second.

Only the three best individual scores per team count in each round. Du Plessis is still in the top 10 individual results and is in joint seventh place with 153.

He was joined by Reunion’s Julian Sale, Van der Merwe and Peter Munyinya from Zambia. The custom with the winners of this tournament is that they compete at the annual Toyota Junior World Cup.

Africa Golf Confederation president, Joe Malangi, announced that this year’s winner and runners-up will compete in this year’s Toyota Junior World Cup, which is scheduled for June in Japan.