Scotland’s Calum Hill claimed one of the most dramatic victories in the history of the Joburg Open when he won a three-man playoff at Houghton Golf Club on Sunday.
Under brooding Johannesburg thunderclouds, the sparks truly flew on the back nine of this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament as Hill surged through the field with a final round of 62 to lead in the clubhouse on 14 under par, and was then joined on that total by South Africans Jacques Kruyswijk (who closed with a 66) and Shaun Norris (who signed for a 70).
Playing the par-four 18th as the first playoff hole, all three golfers parred the hole.
Then on the second playoff hole, Norris found the right fairway bunker off the tee and then hit his second into the water on his way to a double bogey. Kruyswijk bogeyed the hole, and Hill parred to claim his second DP World Tour title.
“I’m a little bit taken aback at the moment. I was quite far back at the start of the final round, and then played a great round of golf where a lot of putts went in. I’m a bit shocked, but delighted to come out with the trophy,” said Hill.
It was a tense start to the final round as Norris’s four-shot lead overnight was reduced to two with his back-to-back bogeys on the opening two holes, and with five players lining up behind him as his nearest challengers.
The closing holes provided plenty of drama.
Norris, tied for the lead with Hill, hit his second into the water on the 12th on his way to a double bogey. Hill missed a par putt on 16 to also make bogey. All of which left Dylan Frittelli coming off a bogey on 15 and finding himself tied for the lead with Hill. Kruyswijk then joined for a three-way tie for the lead after his birdie on 13.
Kruyswijk took the lead on his own on 14 under with a birdie on 14, but dropped a shot back with a bogey on 15. Hill then birdied 18 after a magnificent shot into the green, which kicked off the greenside bank and left him a little over a metre putt for birdie to set the clubhouse target at 14 under.
Kruyswijk birdied the 17th to join the playoff, and Norris made a tremendous putt for birdie on 18 to also force his way into the playoff.
“I thought we might need one or two more birdies. I just had to wait and see and fortunately -14 held up to get into a playoff, and then anything can happen. I’m just fortunate to come out on top,” said Hill.
SCORES
266 - Calum Hill
266 - Jacques Kruyswijk, Shaun Norris
267 - Dylan Frittelli
268 - Daniel van Tonder
269 - Kieran Vincent
270 - Brandon Robinson Thompson, Jacob Olesen
271 - Jayden Schaper, Todd Clements, Sam Bairstow, Connor Syme, Marcel Siem
272 - Wenyi Ding, Callum Tarren, Daniel Brown, Robin Williams, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen
273 - Francesco Laporta, Romain Langasque, Marco Penge, Malcolm Mitchell, Jaco Ahlers, Adrien Saddier
275 - Pierre Pineau, Jeong Weon Ko, Gerhard Pepler, Adrian Otaegui, Ugo Coussaud
276 - Bjorn Akesson, Jordan Smith, Kyle Barker, Nikhil Rama, Brandon Stone, Luke Brown, Rhys Enoch
277 - Louis Albertse, Nathan Kimsey, Niklas Lemke, Shubhankar Sharma, Richard Mansell
278 - Matthew Southgate, Maximilian Steinlechner, Martin Rohwer, Franklin Manchest, Ryggs Johnston, Veer Ahlawat, Ryan Van Velzen, Richie Ramsay, Joost Luiten, Jordan Gumberg
279 - Alexander Levy, Sean Crocker, Thomas Aiken
280 - George Coetzee, Pieter Moolman
281 - Gavin Green, Kyle McClatchie, Andy Sullivan, Ewen Ferguson, Ben Schmidt, Luke Jerling, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Hennie Otto
282 - Darius van Driel, Jaco Van Zyl
283 - Rhys West, Freddy Schott, Jacques P de Villiers
284 - Zander Lombard, Jens Dantorp, Jacques Blaauw, Martin Vorster
285 - Michael Hollick, Graham van der Merwe
287 - Ross Fisher, Danny List
296 - Benjamin Follett-Smith
MISSED THE CUT:-
140 - Lyle Pedro, Ethan Smith, Stals Swart, MJ Viljoen, Louis de Jager, Simon Forsstrom, Robson Chinhoi, Casey Jarvis, Dan Bradbury, Alejandro Del Rey, Ricardo Gouveia, Kayle Wykes, Jordan Duminy, Merrick Bremner, Tom Vaillant, Wilco Nienaber, Heinrich Bruiners, Aaron Cockerill, Dylan Naidoo, Toto Thimba Jnr
141 - Haydn Porteous, Julien Brun, CJ du Plessis, Richard Sterne, Lucas Bjerregaard, Jack Senior, David Ravetto, Deon Germishuys, Tapio Pulkkanen, Combrinck Smit, Manuel Elvira, Jean Hugo
142 - Dylan Mostert, Darren Fichardt, Danie Van Niekerk, Dale Whitnell, Nicolas Colsaerts
143 - Matthias Schwab, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Lyle Rowe, JC Ritchie, John Parry, Ruan Korb, Neil Schietekat
144 - Peter Karmis, Mikael Lindberg, Jovan Rebula, Corey Shaun, Matthew Spacey, Joel Girrbach, Jonathan Broomhead, Johannes Veerman
145 - Ruan Conradie, Trevor Fisher Jnr, Joel Moscatel, Matthew Baldwin, Yurav Premlall, Ivan Verster
146 - Musiwalo Nethunzwi, Jake Redman, Jastice Mashego, Scott Jamieson
147 - Ivan Cantero, Keith Horne, Kazuma Kobori
148 - Stefan Wears-Taylor, JJ Senekal, Albert Venter
149 - Anthony Michael, Trevor Mahoney
150 - Rupert Kaminski
151 - Hayden Griffiths, Makhetha Mazibuko
154 - Keelan van Wyk
159 - Tristin Galant
WDN - Stephen Ferreira, Oliver Bekker, Keenan Davidse