Sullivan victory underlines great SA Open 2014 season
England’s Andy Sullivan pulled off one of the greatest burglaries in the history of the South African Open, when he won the 104th South African Open Championship on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off with Charl Schwartzel.
Ernie Els graced the tournament, hosted by Ekurhuleni at Glendower Golf Club, in his role as player-host and ambassador.
Although his second-round 77 saw him finish in a shared 20th position, he brought something extra to the championship and, when he and Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele handed Sullivan the trophy, it was a fitting image of the success of the venture.
Schwartzel held a three-stroke edge over Sullivan as he went to the 16th, but a three-putt double bogey there and a calamitous tee shot on the par-three 17th, after which bogey was a good score, saw him play the 18th needing a birdie to win.
At this stage it seemed he had safely exorcised the demons of 2013, when he also contrived to lose the South African title, which had eluded him.
His lengthy putt burned the edge of the hole, but he was confronted with the ordeal of having to take on Sullivan in a play-off, instead of celebrating a victory which should have been his.
Sullivan’s drive on the first sudden-death hole found the left rough behind a tree, but he played the shot of the tournament to 12 feet, and then sank the putt to become the 63rd winner of the South African Open Championship.
“The tree was right in front of me, so I had to cut a little nine iron around it,” he said.
”With everything on the line and with all the pressure it was, without a doubt, one of the best shots I’ve ever hit; it was an all or nothing shot that came off.”
For Schwartzel, it was a case of biting the bullet and being gracious in defeat – again.
“Pretty much lost for words right now. I played fairly decently, but struggled with the driver today,” he said.
“Andy hit an incredible shot and I take my hat off to him.”
There was another burglary at the tournament, when Thomas Aiken edged ahead of Danie van Tonder in the race to win the Order of Merit.
Van Tonder, playing in his 25th event of the season, started the week with a R220 000 advantage over Aiken, who was his nearest challenger to have met the eligibility criterion of seven events or more.
A late rally from van Tonder saw him scrape through to the weekend, but a disappointing final round of 75 reduced him to a three-way share of 55th place.
This left Aiken needing to finish in a two-way share of 10th or better and, after the lead seemingly changed hands on a half-hourly basis, he needed a par on the last hole to finish seven under and likely to wrap up things.
A poor approach left him with some 80 feet for a birdie, and the best he could do from there was to stroke it up to around 10 feet.
However, the 31-year old then nervelessly stepped up to bury the putt, thus effectively clinching the Order of Merit by a solitary stroke.
In the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, in Kapalua, on the PGA Tour, Tim Clark finished in a shared 25th place, behind Patrick Reed, who edged out Jimmy Walker in a play-off.
The Sunshine Tour 2015 season gets underway next week, in Bloemfontein, as 236 players jostle for 30 Sunshine Tour cards.
