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He overcame a shaky opening nine during which he made two bogeys and then pulled clear on the back nine as challenges to his overnight lead foundered. He went on to win his first Sunshine Tour title since he started coming to South Africa back in 2012.
“It’s brilliant to get the win after three second places on the tour,” he said.
“A few of my mates have won and it’s nice to join them. It’s great to get a victory here. It opens up a lot of opportunities for co-sanctioned events and stuff which I’ve not had before, so it’s brilliant.”
Derick Petersen pulled off his second runner-up spot of his Sunshine Tour career with his closing 72 to finish second, while Sweden’s Philip Eriksson carded a four-under-par 68 - the best round of the day - to take third.
Madalitso Muthiya of Zambia, Zander Lombard, Rhys West and Jacques Blaauw shared fourth, after Blaauw spent much of the homeward nine pushing Surry hard. A pair of double-bogeys on 16 and 17 put paid to his challenge, however.
It was a ropey start for Surry - and the whole final group, in fact.
“I really struggled with putting on the front nine, and hit a couple of bad pitch shots - sloppy mistakes,” he said.
“Everyone in my group was struggling, so it was hard to get any momentum.
“Then Jacques started playing nicely on the back nine, and I played well on the back nine as well, so we got there in the end. I think you can feed off the other guys if they’re playing well. If the group’s playing well, then it helps everyone in it. The first six or seven holes, we were all struggling a bit. We were all trying to egg each other on.”
Surry got it together immediately after the turn, when he birdied the 10th. He gave a shot back on the 12th, but made birdie again on 13.
“A key moment was when I made a nice birdie on 15, and then on 16, Jacques hit a bad tee shot and made double, and I made birdie,” he said.
“That sort of cleared things up a bit.”
The win took him to 20th on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, and into the lucrative trio of tournaments that end the year - the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, the South African Open Championship and the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Scores:
210 - Steve Surry 69 69 72
214 - Derick Petersen 70 72 72
215 - Philip Eriksson 72 75 68
216 - Madalitso Muthiya 71 74 71, Zander Lombard 72 71 73, Rhys West 71 72 73, Jacques Blaauw 70 72 74
217 - Jonathan Agren 75 73 69, Jacques P de Villiers 68 78 71
218 - Daniel van Tonder 74 75 69, Anthony Michael 74 75 69, Keith Horne 76 71 71, Wynand Dingle 75 72 71, Luke Joy 74 68 76
219 - Jbe' Kruger 70 78 71, Michael Palmer 70 78 71, Duane Keun 74 76 69
220 - Vaughn Groenewald 74 75 71, Herman Loubser 72 75 73, Hennie du Plessis 74 77 69, Doug McGuigan 70 76 74
221 - Christiaan Basson 75 75 71, Ulrich van den Berg 80 70 71, Andre Nel 76 72 73, Aubrey Beckley 73 74 74, James Kamte 71 80 70
222 - Keenan Davidse 71 78 73, Steven Lecuyer 75 73 74, Kyle McClatchie 74 74 74, Chris Cannon 75 73 74, Alex Haindl 70 80 72, Stephen Ferreira 74 77 71
223 - Erhard Lambrechts 74 74 75, Allister de Kock 75 76 72, Chris Swanepoel 68 78 77, Jake Roos 76 75 72, Ruan de Smidt 74 77 72
224 - JJ Senekal 74 75 75, Dawie van der Walt 76 73 75, Yubin Jung 76 72 76, Estiaan Conradie 78 73 73, Gideon van der Vyver 74 77 73
226 - Callum Mowat 73 75 78, Jaco Prinsloo 78 72 76, Titch Moore 74 77 75
227 - Lyle Rowe 70 80 77
229 - Anton Haig 75 75 79
232 - Andrew Odoh 74 77 81
