George Coetzee won the Tshwane Open on Sunday at the Pretoria Country Club — the course he grew up playing on — making birdie on hole No. 17 to take the title by one shot from Jacques Blaauw.
Coetzee finished on 14-under 266 after a final-round 65 at the par-70 course, where he is a member.
It was his second win on the European Tour following his Joburg Open victory last year.
Photo: EPA
Fellow South African Blaauw had a chance at his first European title with the clubhouse lead at 13-under after a course record-equaling 61, with nine birdies and no dropped shots.
Blaauw made six birdies in seven holes around the turn to set a tough target.
However, the Pretoria-born Coetzee, one of six players tied for the lead overnight, kept his nerve. Trying to drive the green on hole No. 17, he sent his tee shot into some trees. He chipped out to within five feet and made a decisive birdie, his fifth of the round.
That left him to par the last and triumph in front of family and friends at the club where he first won a junior tournament aged 10.
“It’s perfect playing my home course and winning this,” Coetzee said. “I never thought as a kid that I would play a European Tour event at my home club.”
Coetzee, aged 28, was the first golfer in seven years to win a European Tour event at his home club, the tour said.
On a South African-dominated leaderboard, home players Dean Burmester and Tjaart van der Walt tied for third on nine-under with Scotland’s Craig Lee, the only non-South African in the top five.
New Europe Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke carded 68-69 over the weekend to finish in a tie for 15th, his best result this year.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS