Smit joins SA stars with Vodacom Origins Final victory

Combrinck Smit added his name to an impressive list of Sunshine Tour stars who have all won on the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series as he clinched the Final of this year’s series in a playoff at the Pinnacle Point Estate on Sunday.

Smit overcame a double-bogey on the 16th in regulation play and then battled through a sudden-death playoff against the experienced Jake Redman to claim victory.

With his win on this series, Smit joins the likes of Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester, George Coetzee, Justin Harding, Thriston Lawrence and a host of others Sunshine Tour stars to have won a Vodacom Origins of Golf title.

The KwaZulu-Natal professional had to birdie the 18th to make it into a playoff with Redman on eight under par. Redman had earlier signed for a 68 to lead in the clubhouse and was then joined by Smit following his 72.

Both played parred the par-five 18th as the first playoff hole. Playing the hole again, Redman pulled his drive into the fynbos on the left and was forced to take a penalty drop, from where he went on to make a double bogey. Smit parred the hole to take the title.

“It’s never a great thing playing against a good friend and such a great guy as Jake in a playoff. But somebody has to win and thank goodness it could be me,” said Smit.

He started the final round with a one-stroke lead and admits it was a hard day on the fairways, which began with a bogey at the first and then included that double bogey on the par-five 16th.

“I don’t really know what happened today. There were some surprising shots out there. I’ve clipped the fynbos quite a couple of times this week and I was a bit shocked after the 16th. But I just told myself to keep going and that I still had a great chance to win the tournament. I got it done in the end,” said a relieved Smit, who also wins a Jaguar F Type for use until the end of the 2022/23 season.

The tournament marked the end of yet another successful season of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, which since 2004 has been the backbone of the Sunshine Tour’s winter schedule.

SCORES (* won on second hole of a sudden-death playoff):

-8 - *Combrinck Smit, Jake Redman

-6 - Oliver Bekker, Malcolm Mitchell

-4 - Albert Venter

-3 - Martin Vorster, Ockie Strydom

-2 - Hennie Otto, Ruan Korb, Jacques P de Villiers, Jake Roos, Jared Harvey

-1 - Stephen Ferreira, Martin Rohwer

Par - Hennie O'Kennedy, Jean Hugo

+1 - Christiaan Burke, Neil Schietekat, Jayden Schaper

+2 - Keelan van Wyk, Andre De Decker, Divan van den Heever, Bradley Bawden, Doug McGuigan

+3 - Callum Mowat, Matias Calderon, Jovan Rebula, Riekus Nortje

+4 - Stefan Wears-Taylor, Chris Cannon, James Pennington