He cruised to a four-stroke victory over Louis de Jager on a total 12-under-par 204, after taking control from the first round when he shot an opening round 65 in windy conditions on Thursday. He followed that up with another convincing round of 69 on moving day and sealed his maiden victory resoundingly.
“To finally cross that line, I’m overjoyed,” Harvey remarked.
“I mean, the last time I felt a real high and elation was obviously winning the South African Amateur Stroke Play and that was a long time ago. I was really hoping to cross that line today and remember how it was to feel that big feeling again.”
A very competitive character by nature, even though it seemed he was cruising to victory from very early on, Harvey was still very meticulous in playing the final round.
“I thought anything under-par was going to be tough to beat,” he said of his approach to the final round.
“With a seven-shot lead, I thought anything under-par would do it but my goal for the day, at least, was to shoot two-under. I got off to a great start, made some hell-of-a good putts again and I was four-under through eight and in absolute cruise control,” he said.
He added that despite being on the front foot for much of the tournament, he stumbled a bit on the homeward nine where he made three bogeys and a single birdie on 17, but was happy to have held on.
Behind Harvey, De Jager finished on eight-under-par 208 after he shot a final round four-under-par 68, while Jonathan Agren of Sweden finished third on six-under.
Keenan Davidse finished fourth on four-under, while Vaughn Groenewald, American Kyle Pilgrim, Adilson Da Silva and Andre Nel share fifth on three-under.
Jean Hugo and Christiaan Basson shared ninth.
Scores:
204 - Jared
Harvey 64 69 71
208 - Louis de Jager 72 68 68
210 - Jonathan Agren 71 71 68
212 - Keenan Davidse 69 72 71
213 - Vaughn Groenewald 77 70 66, Kyle
Pilgrim 73 74 66, Adilson da Silva 71 75 67, Andre
Nel 71 71 71
214 - Jean Hugo 70 75 69, Christiaan Basson 71
73 70
215 - Andrew Curlewis 72 77 66, Stuart Smith 72
75 68, Alex Haindl 74 73 68, Anthony Michael 76 70
69, Ockie Strydom 70 75 70, Lyle Rowe 72 73 70, Jake
Roos 69 75 71, Lindani Ndwandwe 69 73 73
216 - Madalitso Muthiya 72 77 67, MJ Viljoen 74
75 67, Wallie Coetsee 74 74 68, Ulrich van den Berg 73 75
68, Doug McGuigan 73 73 70, Rourke van der Spuy 75 71 70
218 - Neil Schietekat 74 75 69, Michael
Hollick 74 72 72
219 - Daniel van Tonder 73 76 70, Ruan de
Smidt 75 74 70, James Kamte 73 75 71, Colin Nel 73 74
72, Jean-Paul Strydom 73 70 76
220 - Andre De Decker 74 75 71, Dongkwan Kim 77
71 72, Zack Byrd 76 72 72, Desne Van Den Bergh 72 75
73, Martin Rohwer 74 71 75, Oliver Bekker 70 74 76
221 - Hennie du Plessis 72 77 72, Jacquin
Hess 73 76 72, Tyrone Ferreira 75 72 74
222 - Luke Jerling 79 70 73, Heinrich
Bruiners 78 70 74
223 - Antonio Rosado 75 74 74, Jaco Prinsloo 77
70 76, Jason Froneman 72 74 77, N.J. Arnoldi 71 75 77
224 - Chris Cannon 75 74 75, Damon
Stephenson 74 73 77, Greg Bentley 72 72 80
228 - Aubrey Beckley 72 74 82
RTD - Michael Palmer 73 76 RTD