Talented Port Elizabeth golfer Kyle de Beer tamed gruelling conditions to win the Humewood Silver Salver title for the first time at the links course in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
With a wind in excess of 40kph, coupled with pouring rain at times, it was not an easy day for the EP Order of Merit contenders and De Beer said it was just a case of knuckling down to make sure you found the fairways from the tee.
The PE Golf Club player finished the day with a hard-earned round of 72, narrowly failing to break par when “I left a putt in the jaws of the hole on the 18th”.
He finished four shots clear of Walmer Golf Club’s Dillon Germshuys, who posted a 76, along with PEGC members Sean Lottering and Robbie Shearer. Andrew Jeffrey [also PEGC] was in fifth place, a further shot back.
De Beer acknowledged the difficult conditions but said it was a matter of not trying to look for too much on a well-manicured links layout.
“The wind blew really hard the whole front nine and then as soon as the back nine started, the rain came down,” he said. “That sort of took the place of the wind, even though the wind was pumping, and once the rain stopped, you still had to contend with the wind.
“Of course, PE players have plenty of experience of playing in the wind, but the strength it blew at on Sunday, coupled with the rain, made it a really tough day.”
He said his modus operandi was to find the fairway from the tee box and then try to manage the conditions from there.
“If you can do that, it’s not too tough to build a round by just playing for the middle of the green all day,” De Beer added. “Naturally, if you get a chance you try for a birdie putt, but mainly it was about making sure you made par on the longer holes and those testing ones into the wind.
“From there if you hole any putts [for a birdie] it is just a bonus.”
Coming into his first tournament after a lengthy break due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said he was happy with the way things turned out.
“My aim was to try to break par and maybe there were two bad shots I hit during the round, but the rest went according to plan so I was chuffed with that.”
Due to the demand for rounds by local golfers at the club, the tournament was contested over 18 holes and De Beer said he felt it still provided a good contest.
“I think that was fair to go over 18 holes for the first Order of Merit event in a while,” he said. “Given the weather I don’t think 36 holes would have been great.
“Humewood did a great job of maintaining the Covid-19 rules and all that goes with it. I had a good time on the day and I felt it went really well.”
Leading scores:
72 – Kyle de Beer
76 – Dillon Germshuys, Sean Lottering, Robbie Shearer
77 – Andrew Jeffrey
78 – Hando Brophy, Greg Manuel, Francois van Coppenhagen
79 – Andile Adam, Michael Bosch, Devon Valentine
Alan Straton
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