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Port Edward - Madalitso Muthiya of Zambia fulfilled the promise he has shown over the last three years on the Sunshine Tour on Saturday, with his maiden victory coming in the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament played at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club.
He carded a wind-swept final round of four-under-par 66 to win at 11-under-par by two strokes from Hennie du Plessis and Ockie Strydom - and that gave him the winner’s share of R110 950, and a boost to 37th on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.
“I was very proud of myself,” he said. I stayed within the plan that I had when I started out the round, and I managed to play well enough on a very tough day.”
He not only played well enough to ward of the challenge of the runners-up, but he also held off a charge from Jean Hugo, who has won 11 times on the Vodacom Origins of Golf series. Hugo drew level with Muthiya at the 12th with a good birdie into the strong wind on the tough par-five, but a double-bogey five on the 13th put the kibosh on the chances of a 12th title for Hugo.
“I had no clue what happened to him on 13,” said Muthiya, who was playing in the group ahead of the veteran. “I made a clutch putt on 13, and another one on 16. I didn’t hit a good chip shot there and I holed out from 20 feet for birdie. I think that was probably the deciding moment for me.”
Just before Muthiya made that birdie, Du Plessis had used the wind from behind on the par-five 16th to reach the green in two, and his 12-foot eagle putt dropped to put him level with Muthiya for a while.
In the end, Du Plessis just missed out on taking second place on his own when he missed a short par putt on 18.
Strydom decided to try and drive the green on 18 in an attempt to make eagle and draw level with Muthiya. He finished up just short and right, overcooked his chip and settled for par.
Muthiya not letting himself get carried away with the win. “I’m obviously going to learn from it and try and carry the confidence forward,” he said. “I want to build on the strengths I have and rectify the mistakes I made.
“But all in all, I think I handled myself pretty well, and that certainly applies moving forward.”
Scores:
199 - Madalitso Muthiya 63 70 66
201 - Hennie du Plessis 69 65 67, Ockie Strydom 65 68 68
203 - Mark Williams 68 67 68, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 65 68 70, Jean Hugo 66 66 71
204 - Anthony Michael 71 67 66
205 - Colin Nel 69 67 69, Jean-Paul Strydom 68 67 70, Vaughn Groenewald 66 66 73
206 - Keenan Davidse 67 70 69, Merrick Bremner 68 68 70, Jacques Kruyswijk 71 68 67
207 - Bryce Easton 65 70 72, Jake Roos 71 68 68
209 - Steven Ferreira 69 67 73, Neil Schietekat 70 65 74, Toto Thimba 70 65 74, Doug McGuigan 70 68 71, Peter Karmis 68 70 71
210 - Bryn Flanagan 70 67 73, Justin Harding 68 69 73, Daniel Greene 68 69 73, JC Ritchie 69 68 73, Christiaan Basson 71 67 72,Lindani Ndwandwe 68 70 72, Werner van Niekerk 67 72 71, Teaghan Gauche 67 67 76
211 - Heinrich Bruiners 71 66 74, Francois Coetzee 69 67 75
212 - Jared Harvey 71 66 75, Morne Buys 69 69 74, Theunis Spangenberg 66 72 74, Stefan Engell Andersen 69 69 74, Ryan Cairns 67 68 77, Kevin Rundle 66 68 78
213 - PH McIntyre 69 69 75, Ruan de Smidt 70 65 78, Bryandrew Roelofsz 75 64 74
216 - Charl Coetzee 72 64 80
218 - Stephen Ferreira 66 71 81
