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Paarl - It was a case of Jaco van Zyl and then the rest as he demolished the field to win the SAA Pro-Am Invitational at the 6 289m Paarl Golf Club by an astonishing eight-shot margin.
He carded a final-round 64 to open out that yawning gap over Alex Haindl, who did nothing wrong with his closing five-under 67.
Anton Haig threatened the lead briefly with his closing six-under 66, and he finished alone in third.
When Van Zyl reached the turn in the final round, he was just one under par after making bogey on the second - an error he soon rectified with birdies on four and six.
Also, the field had closed his overnight five-stroke lead to a narrower three shots - perhaps one which could be overcome.
"I don't know what it is," said Van Zyl. "I wasn't playing any better on the back nine, but it all seemed to come together."
It came together with an eagle on the 10th, consecutive birdies on 11 and 12, another on 16 and then a sublime eagle three on the 18th to finish things off with a flourish.
And there were two birdie putts that threatened to go in on 15 and 17 which would have made his closing 29 even more spectacular - if that were possible.
That final eagle summed up Van Zyl's week: "I drove off the tee pretty well," he said of the club he borrowed from Andre Curlewis at the beginning of the week after the one he had built for him to replace his old cracked one, was discarded.
"I had four-iron in," he remembered, "and I caught it perfectly."
It finished up two feet from the pin which was tucked away on the back left with water guarding it - but that never seemed to enter Van Zyl's thinking.
His approaches were pin-point accurate throughout the tournament. "I was never really worried about hitting it off line all week, and I was hitting it the right distance," he said.
Behind Haig, Jean Hugo, who won the previous week's tournament, closed with a five-under 67, and his highly respectable 12-under for the tournament left him a jaw-dropping 10 shots off the pace.
And Tyrone Ferreira closed with a seven-under-par 65 to finish on 11-under - and he won the SAA Pro-Am Invitational at Randpark on September 11 at eight-under! For Van Zyl, it was his fourth victory of the year -one better than his great season last year.
And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. In fact, he seems to be getting better.
Scores in the final round of the SAA Pro-Am Invitational golf tournament played at the Paarl Golf Club (RSA unless specified).
194 - Jaco van Zyl 66 64 64
202 - Alex Haindl 68 67 67
203 - Anton Haig 68 69 66
204 - Jean Hugo 68 69 67
205 - Tyrone Ferreira 68 72 65
206 - Branden Grace 70 69 67, Willie van der Merwe 70 66 70
207 - Darren Fichardt 67 71 69, Bradford Vaughan 65 72 70, Justin Walters 69 67 71
208 - Jake Roos 68 72 68
209 - Trevor Fisher Jnr 67 72 70, Gerhard Trytsman 71 68 70
210 - Shaun Norris 72 71 67, Jacques Blaauw 70 72 68, Andrew Curlewis 71 71 68, Adilson da Silva (BRA) 68 72 70
212 - Merrick Bremner 69 75 68, Des Terblanche 73 71 68, Francois van Vuuren 72 71 69, Christiaan Basson 72 71 69, Doug McGuigan 73 69 70, Omar Sandys 74 68 70, Darryn Lloyd 72 70 70, Warren Abery 67 73 72
213 - Ross Wellington 71 71 71
214 - Ulrich van den Berg 72 72 70, Nic Henning 73 71 70, Keenan Davidse 68 73 73, David Hewan 67 72 75
215 - Stuart Clark (WAL) 69 74 72, Roberto Lupini 71 69 75
216 - Divan van den Heever 70 73 73, Dion Fourie 75 68 73, Prinavin Nelson 70 73 73, Justin Harding 70 73 73, Johan du Buisson 71 71 74, Ryan Tipping 72 68 76
217 - Matthew Carvell 73 71 73, Thabang Simon 68 73 76
218 - Irvin Mazibuko 75 69 74, Colin Nel 72 71 75, Jaco Ahlers 68 74 76
219 - Michael du Toit 70 74 75
220 - Mikhail Tewary 73 71 76
223 - Teboho Sefatsa 74 69 80
