GOLFING NEWS - Matt Bright celebrated a stylish maiden win on the IGT Challenge Tour with a wire-to-wire victory in the Woodhill Challenge on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Pretoria native closed with a solid one-under-par 71 to triumph by six shots on 12 under 203 from Sunshine Tour winner Merrick Bremner and Stefan Engell Anderson from Kenya at Woodhill Country Club.
Having taken a month to work on his game, Bright was over the moon with the result.
“This is a great feeling,” said the youthful chief executive of SteelStuff. “I came into this week feeling very positive and I’m so pleased that all the hard work paid off. This is a solid step forward in where I want to take my game. I haven’t won in a very long while, so it’s good to know that I still have what it takes. It’s also really satisfying that I put myself in contention from the start and I saw it through to the finish line.”
Bright set the bar quite high with a flawless eight-under-par 64 in the first round and stretched his two shot overnight lead to five strokes with a 68 in the second round.
“I was really focused and my goal was to go out there and make every shot count,” he said. “Then I bogeyed the first and Merrick made birdie and the lead was cut to two.
“But I settled down quickly and had the lead back to four shots by the time we reached the turn. When Merrick three-putted the 10th and I made a birdie at 11, I knew I was in good shape with six shots in hand and six holes to play.”
Bright dropped successive shots at 13 and 14, but immediately rallied with back-to-back birdies.
“Both bogeys were soft drops,” he said. “I had to punch out from under a tree at 13. My approach went over the green and I didn’t up-and-down to save par. At 14, I three-putted from just off the green, but I hit two great tee shots at 15 and 16 to go birdie-birdie.
“I had a seven shot lead playing 17 and there was no real pressure to speak of. Got a little unlucky after I hit a really good tee shot and the ball kicked into the hazard. I ended up dropping another shot, but another good tee shot at 18 gave me the chance to finish up with a birdie.”
Bright said there was a lot of positives to take out of this week’s performance.
“My ball striking was great and so was my short game,” said Bright. “You’re always going to have a bad shot or two out there, but I was able to keep it in play, give myself chances and covert for birdies.
Final Result
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs indicated as AMA
203 - Matt Bright 64 68 71
209 - Stefan Engell Andersen (KEN) 69 69 71, Merrick Bremner 69 68 72
210 - Louis de Jager 75 66 69
211 - Jake Redman 72 68 71, Ruan Conradie 66 72 73
214 - Peetie van der Merwe AMA 71 69 74
215 - Conway Kunneke 75 68 72
217 - Paul Boshoff 72 72 73, Michael Kok AMA 72 70 75
218 - Ruan Huysamen (NAM) 76 72 70, Clinton Grobler 72 75 71, Dylan Kok AMA 73 71 74
219 - Dawid Opperman AMA 73 75 71, Victor Lange 75 73 71, Nicholaus Frade AMA 75 71 73
220 - Roberto Lupini 77 71 72, Dean Martin AMA 74 73 73, Armand van Dyk AMA 74 71 75, Ruan Korb 70 70 80
221 - Duane Keun 77 72 72, Christopher van der Merwe AMA 77 72 72, Luke Brown AMA 77 73 71
222 - Divan Marais 77 72 73, Tertius van den Berg 79 72 71, Jason Roets 71 75 76
223 - Nicol Kromhout AMA 74 76 73, Bradley Diggeden AMA 73 75 75, Albert Visser 73 73 77, Theunis Bezuidenhout AMA 75 71 77
224 - Roux Jeffery (NAM) 75 77 72, Quintin Wilsnach 75 71 78
225 - Jade Buitendag 73 78 74, Richard Kruger AMA 68 78 79
227 - Fanie Wolmarans AMA 78 74 75, Estiaan Conradie 71 74 82
228 - Ruan de Smidt 73 75 80, Matthew Hands AMA 77 74 77, WM Coetzee AMA 74 79 75
229 - Nobuhle Dlamini (SWA) 76 77 76, Dwayne Coetzee 81 76 72
230 - Christian Basson AMA 74 78 78
231 - Leon Visser AMA 75 74 82, Leon Vorster AMA 73 77 81, Basil Wright 77 76 78, Ivanna Samu 79 74 78
232 - Bryce Myburgh 75 78 79, Herman Anderson AMA 80 74 78, JP Cooper AMA 79 74 79, Milton Maloon AMA 80 75 77
234 - Terry Smith 78 75 81, Jabulane Mabilane 77 79 78, Christopher de Beer AMA 73 83 78
235 - Patric Dowling AMA 77 78 80, Shaun van Tonder 79 78 78
236 - Nicholas Wolak AMA 75 79 82
237 - Dean du Plessis AMA 75 77 85, Mae Cornforth 80 76 81
239 - Martinus Barnard 79 74 86
243 - Tudor Bismark (ZIM) 78 79 86
WDN - Adriel Poonan AMA 76 76 WDN
N/R - Mark Bright 78 77 N/R
RTD - Michael Van Rooyen 74 83 RTD
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
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