Ryan Dreyer delivered another composed round to win his third Sunshine Senior Tour golf title when he claimed the Nelson Mandela Bay Classic in a tense and windy final round at Humewood in Gqeberha on Friday.
The 52-year-old, who grew up in Johannesburg but currently lives in Malta, added a final round of 68 to his tally to finish on seven-under par 209, taking the title by two shots from 2022 champion Doug McGuigan.
McGuigan shot a final round 71 for an overall score of 211, followed by Paul Marks, who finished with a 74 for a total of 212.
After an opening 74 on Wednesday, the final outcome was a terrific comeback by Dreyer, who said his intention was just to play smart golf in the duel for the title after trailing the overnight leaders by three shots.
His triumph was built on an outstanding front nine when, with a strong westerly making life uncomfortable for all the competitors, he fashioned four birdies in the first eight holes to go into the turn at seven-under.
Two birdies on the back nine were cancelled out by two bogeys, but it proved enough in the end as none of his rivals were able to mount a serious challenge in testing conditions.
“The wind was the strongest all week and my mindset was just to try to play as solid as I could because the first eight holes on this course, in this wind, are absolutely brutal,” Dreyer said. “So I focused on trying to play really smart shots, and I hit some good ones and had some decent putts.
“Somehow I found myself four under after eight and I said well that’s the hard part done.” Inevitably though, as the final holes draw closer, the tension did not dissipate despite Dreyer’s relatively comfortable cushion.
“The last thing I should have done was look at the leaderboard and see that I was leading by three or four going into the last few holes,” Dreyer said with a grimace.
“In the end, I was just trying to hang on for dear life because I have battled with confidence issues, so my default mode is to err on the side of caution, but it shows you can do that and still win tournaments.”
In the end he was delighted with his victory, adding to his previous wins in Parys and Kingswood in George.
“It’s really great to win at such a magnificent course, because Humewood is the type of layout that can give you enough rope to hang yourself.
“It plays differently every day and I think one of the good things I did was not play too much in the build-up, because that helped me to play a bit more naturally than being too mechanical.”
Leading final round scores:
- 209 – Ryan Dreyer 74 67 68
- 211 – Doug McGuigan 71 69 71
- 212 – Paul Marks 71 67 74
- 214 – Wallie Coetzee 73 69 72, Andrew McLardy 70 68 76
- 216 – Gregg Upton 68 70 78
- 218 – Kenneth Dube 69 72 77
- 220 – Chris Williams 69 73 78
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