Michael Vlismas
HARTBEESPOORT, North West – Daniel van Tonder is chasing his second victory in as many weeks on the Sunshine Tour and HotelPlanner Tour as he takes a three-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round of the MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood.
Van Tonder produced a composed 66 at Pecanwood on Saturday to climb to 22 under par, with Australia’s Danny List his nearest challenger on 19 under par following an impressive 62.
Van Tonder has been in rampant form over the last two weeks.
He won the SDC Open at Zebula last week and in the process reclaimed his number one position on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy while also taking the number one spot on the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Mallorca standings. A win on Sunday would be his fourth victory on the Sunshine Tour this season.
“It would be amazing to win again on Sunday. It would help a lot towards my goal of winning the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy, and then I’m also chasing three wins on the HotelPlanner Tour which secures me a DP World Tour card,” he said.
But it did take him some time to get going on Saturday. He turned in level par after a frustrating front nine, and then played the back nine superbly as he came home in 30.
“I had a good finish on the back nine. It took a while for me to get going on the front. I had a bit of bad luck on the front nine with a couple of holes, and made that bogey on the par-five fifth. That was frustrating. But I just kept telling myself it will come sooner or later. I kept giving myself chances and then I used them on the back nine,” he said.
Australia’s List was one of those applying the pressure as Van Tonder worked through his frustrations on the front nine, and surged through the field with his 62. List was born in Ghana and still feels a strong kinship with that country, which he hopes to also represent on Sunday.
“I definitely have some pretty big ambitions for Ghana golf and I’m trying to represent them as best I can out here. The Sunshine Tour is a brilliant Tour and the quality out here is so impressive. I didn’t know that Africa had this much depth in golf talent, and it’s great to see Africa thriving in golf,” he said.
And Van Tonder clearly has goals of his own for Sunday. In his own inimitable way, he explained his focus.
“I’ve become a father for the first time, and that means I now have two women in the house and that’s expensive. So I have no option but to win.”
SCORES
194 – Daniel van Tonder 62 66 66
197 – Danny List 70 65 62
198 – Martin Vorster 65 65 68
199 – Andreas Halvorsen 65 71 63
200 – Kyle Barker 67 67 66
201 – Ben Stow 66 70 65, David Law 66 71 64, Tomas Gouveia 65 70 66, Albert Boneta 68 67 66, Felix Mory 65 70 66, Clement Sordet 69 66 66, Liam Nolan 68 66 67, Jovan Rebula 67 66 68, Sebastian Friedrichsen 65 67 69
202 – Michael Hollick 70 63 69
203 – Jens Fahrbring 68 67 68, Estiaan Conradie 66 69 68, Jean Hugo 67 67 69, Werner Deyzel 67 66 70, Nikhil Rama 64 68 71, Samuel Jones 70 68 65
204 – Trevor Fisher Jnr 68 68 68, Oihan Guillamoundeguy 65 70 69, Hennie O’Kennedy 71 66 67, Kyle De Beer 69 68 67, Nathan Legendre 67 67 70, Colin Nel 70 68 66, Bryce Easton 65 69 70, Euan Walker 67 71 66, Yurav Premlall 69 69 66
205 – Jaco Van Zyl 65 71 69, Christiaan Burke 69 67 69, Shaun Norris 69 67 69, Jason Roets 64 72 69, MJ Viljoen 74 63 68, John Gough 66 68 71, Jean Bekirian 66 72 67
206 – Gerhard Pepler 69 67 70, Peter Karmis 64 71 71, Neil Schietekat 66 71 69, Daniel Young 67 70 69, Matthis Besard 67 67 72, Baard Skogen 71 67 68, Luke Brown 64 74 68, Lyle Rowe 67 66 73, Ryan Lumsden 67 71 68
207 – Soren Broholt Lind 70 67 70, Dan Erickson 71 67 69
208 – Jonathan Broomhead 66 70 72, Jonathan Caldwell 69 68 71, Benjamin Follett-Smith 66 69 73, Robin Sciot-Siegrist 68 70 70
209 – Craig Ross 68 68 73, Dayne Moore 67 70 72, Hayden Hopewell 68 69 72, Keagan Thomas 67 70 72, Victor Pastor 67 70 72, Stefan Wears-Taylor 67 67 75, George Bloor 68 70 71, Wynand Dingle 66 72 71
210 – Joshua Berry 70 68 72, Ricky Hendler 70 68 72, Borja Virto 67 71 72
216 – Rhys Enoch 67 71 78
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