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Benoni - Ruan de Smidt cruised to his second Sunshine Tour victory at Ebotse Links, carding a final round one-under-par 71 to claim a three-stoke win over Ockie Strydon in the Sun Carnival City Challenge.
“Yeah I’m very happy with winning this week,” De Smidt said after finishing on a total of 11-under-par. “The ball striking this week was superb. I hit it really well. Even today under pressure and in the wind I hit it really solidly and kept it in play,” he added.
The nerves were there towards the finishing stretch, and De Smidt showed experience beyond his years to remain calm under pressure.
“After the par-three 15th I was fine and after the 16th I was fine. When we got to 17 I thought I hit a good three wood but I still has 201 metres into the flag. It was straight into the wind and I wasn’t going to go anywhere near the flag.
"I tried keeping it short of the bunker but unfortunately it went in. The bunker shot was always going to be way short and we just two-putted from there,” he explained.
The nerves were there primarily due to the scintillating seven-under-par round Strydom put together in the 30km/h winds.
“I actually did have a look at the leaderboards when I made my way onto the back nine. I try not to do that, but I saw I had a three or four shot lead, so it wasn’t too bad,” said De Smidt.
The game plan De Smidt implemented around the tricky links layout paid dividends, however luck was on his side throughout the three rounds.
“I think you need to have that kind of luck to win tournaments. Luckily it went my way this week. I had a lot of good bounces and a lot of good putts that could have missed but went in, so I’m really happy,” he said.
De Smidt’s one-under 71 was the joint second best round of the day, with Strydom’s 65 not quite enough to rein in the man from
Krugersdorp. The 65 left Strydom two-strokes ahead of third placed Jacques Blaauw who finished on six-under-par.
Scores:
205 - Ruan de Smidt 66 68 71
208 - Ockie Strydom 71 72 65
210 - Jacques Blaauw 69 70 71
211 - Jacques Kruyswijk 67 73 71, Christiaan Basson 67 71 73, Chris Swanepoel 68 70 73
212 - Mark Williams 68 74 70, Neil Schietekat 70 68 74
213 - Tyrone Ferreira 70 72 71, Jaco Ahlers 73 69 71, Pieter Kruger 72 70 71, Andrew Georgiou 73 67 73, Gert Myburgh 69 71 73, Doug McGuigan 71 68 74
214 - Vaughn Groenewald 69 74 71
215 - Toto Thimba 72 71 72, Titch Moore 70 71 74, Jason Froneman 69 70 76
216 - Stuart Smith 75 70 71, Jared Harvey 73 70 73, JJ Senekal 70 73 73, Charl Coetzee 72 69 75
217 - Keenan Davidse 72 73 72, Ryan Tipping 71 73 73, Anthony Michael 74 70 73, Jaco Prinsloo 71 72 74, Hennie du Plessis 74 69 74, Jonathan Agren 69 73 75
218 - Grant Veenstra 71 74 73, Jason Viljoen 72 71 75
219 - Peter Karmis 69 76 74, Matthew Carvell 71 74 74, MJ Viljoen 70 75 74, Antonio Rosado 71 73 75
220 - Le Roux Ferreira 70 75 75, Bryce Easton 74 71 75, Teaghan Gauche 74 71 75
221 - Werner van Niekerk 73 72 76, Erik van Rooyen 74 71 76, Derick Petersen 68 72 81, Arthur Horne 70 69 82
222 - Colin Nel 69 76 77, Grant Muller 71 71 80
