“I’m very proud of the round I played today, I hit the ball
fantastically in all departments and really never put myself under
pressure. I just kept going forward the whole time,” he said, accoridng to the Sunshine Tour website.
The 44-year-old picked up his eighth Sunshine Tour victory after finishing the R700 000 tournament on 13-under-par, leaving his rivals to fight for second place.
Horne got off to quick start when he birdied the first two holes of the round and went on to reach the turn in 32, moving two shots clear of overnight leader Andrew Curlewis.
“I hit some fantastic iron shots and managed to keep the momentum going by making those five or six foot putts, but they were all for birdie, and that was the good part,” said Horne.
Over the next nine holes he hit superb approach shots and went bogey-free through the stretch, eventually making a par at the 18th to seal the victory.
The Sunshine Tour season resumed this week after a two-month break over the winter months. Horne was pleased to be in such good form so shortly after the hiatus and was keen to get into the remainder of 2015.
“I tried to keep things simple and I’m very happy to win. It’s a nice kick-start and this is good momentum shift to move into the remainder of the year,” he said.
The Eye of Africa Golf Club member also took home 130 points in the Chase to the Investec Cup, which helped him rise to ninth in the standings.
“I always seem to put myself under pressure to get into the Investec Cup. I love the event. It’s such a great concept and exciting thing to be a part of, so it really is something that we all want to get into and make sure that we’ve got our spot as early as possible,” he said.
SCORES (RSA unless otherwise specified):
203 - Keith Horne 68 71 64
208 - Andrew Curlewis 67 70 71
210 - Breyten Meyer 71 70 69
211 - Dean Burmester 71 74 66, Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 75 68 68, Danie van Tonder 71 71 69, Neil Schietekat 68 73 70, Wallie Coetsee 70 70 71
212 - Etienne Bond 70 67 75
213 - Charl Coetzee 71 73 69, Christiaan Basson 74 68 71
214 - Jared Harvey 72 75 67, Doug McGuigan 75 70 69, Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 72 72 70, Ruan de Smidt 71 70 73, Bryce Bibby 70 70 74
215 - Mark Williams (ZIM) 74 70 71
216 - Toto Thimba (Jnr) 72 73 71, Ulrich van den Berg 64 78 74
217 - Erik van Rooyen 72 75 70, Jacques Blaauw 76 70 71, Bradford Vaughan 77 69 71, Trevor Fisher Jnr 79 66 72, Tyrone Ferreira 69 73 75, Thabang Simon 69 72 76
219 - Neil Cheetham (ENG) 71 75 73, Michael Hollick 73 72 74
220 - Pieter Moolman 71 75 74, Russel Franz 71 75 74, Peter Karmis 74 72 74, Heinrich Bruiners 78 67 75
221 - Maritz Wessels 75 71 75, Kevin Stone 73 71 77
222 - Andrew McLardy 76 71 75, Shaun Norris 75 71 76, Justin Harding 74 72 76
223 - JC Ritchie 75 72 76, Colin Nel 71 75 77
225 - Dayne Moore (ZAM) 72 75 78, Drikus Bruyns 73 74 78
227 - Divan Gerber 69 77 81
228 - Ockie Strydom 69 76 83