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Cape Town - Martin Rohwer claimed his first Sunshine Tour title in spectacular fashion as he led from the opening to the closing round of this season’s edition of the Royal Swazi Open in eSwatini.
He was co-leader with England’s James Allan after the opening round on a total of 18 Modified Stableford format points.
A 12-point haul in the second round saw him take solo lead with 30 points in round two. He backed up that round with another 18 points to take his tally to 48 so that he had a six-point lead heading into the final round. He didn’t relent in the final round, earning himself 11 more points which took his total to 59 and delivering him maiden victory in the process.
“It feels unbelievable to be honest,” said Rohwer of his form in eSwatini. “It justifies the fact that I can maintain a lead and play under that type of pressure in a four-round tournament instead of the three-round tournament. Hopefully, I can use that experience in the future.”
In a format like the Modified Stableford, there was always going to be pressure from all over and in the final round, players like Jake Roos and Steve Surry who both came second with 47 points, Rohwer showed maturity to not throw his lead away at any stage of the final round.
“For me, the key was keeping the ball in play,” he said, “and, hitting a lot of good irons. I never, really, got short-sided or I didn’t really look like making a bogey. I kept things stress-free from that point of view. But I played well the whole week; I stayed patient. I had a game plan and I stuck to it and I’m glad it paid off.”
Sharing the fourth spot behind Surry and Roos was the duo of Zimbabwe’s Stephen Ferreira and veteran Jean Hugo with 45 points. Thriston Lawrence’s great form continued as he and Jaco Prinsloo took up the sixth spot on the final leaderboard with a total of 44 points while it was Vaughn Groenewald who came eighth, a point short of Lawrence and Prinsloo’s total.
Member of the Gary Player Class, Derick Petersen, Estiaan Conradie and Daniel Greene made up the top 10 this week as they shared the ninth spot with 42 points for each.
Scores:
59 - Martin Rohwer 18 12 18 11
47 - Steve Surry 14 9 13 11, Jake Roos 8 20 14 5
45 - Stephen Ferreira 15 9 8 13, Jean Hugo 9 11 6 19
44 - Thriston Lawrence 13 9 11 11, Jaco Prinsloo 9 17 11 7
43 - Vaughn Groenewald 7 10 17 9
42 - Derick Petersen 5 10 13 14, Estiaan Conradie 11 14 6 11, Daniel Greene 15 11 14 2
41 - MJ Viljoen 17 10 7 7
