Excellent performance by Lorenzo Scalise who came close to success in the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship where he finished in third place with 274 (66 71 69 68, -14) strokes after being in the running for the title up to the last holes. On the course of the Humewood Golf Club, in Port Elizabeth, in the last of the four tournaments that opened the Challenge Tour season in South Africa, all organized in collaboration with the Sunshine Tour, the South African Dylan Mostert won with 272 (68 68 69 67, -16) shots ahead of compatriot Jaco Prinsloo, second with 273 (-15).
Nelson Mandela Bay Championship, results
In a final round in which at least a dozen competitors were fighting for victory, Prinsloo came from the back with a 62 (-10, an eagle, eight birdies). best score of the day, recovering 37 positions and placing himself at the top with his “minus 15” after arriving well in advance at the club house. Only Mostert reached him and then surpassed him with his sixth birdie of the day on the 18th hole, against a bogey, for the winning 67 (-5). For the 24-year-old South African it is the second title on the Sunshine Tour, which also counts him for the Challenge Tour, in a palmarès which also includes two successes on the Big Easy Tour, the second home circuit.
Scalise shared the position with South African JJ Senekal (scored in the previous SDC Open), Frenchman Tom Vaillant, who was leader after three rounds, and Irishman Ruaidhri McGee. In seventh place with 275 (-13) the transalpine Clément Berardo and the English Jamie Rutherford and in 51st Andrea Pavan with 282 (71 67 78 66, -6), while the third blue in the race, Gregorio De Leo, 86th with 142 (69 73, -2).
Scalise, in the second consecutive top ten after fifth place in the SDC Open, started in eighth place, dropped to 12th in the second round, then recovered to eighth in the third and finally tried to do the feat in the round conclusive, which started with two birdies. A bogey on the 12th hole slowed his run which resumed in the final with three birdies to close for the partial of 68 (-4). Pavan shot 66 (-6, an eagle, five birdies, a bogey) and paid off heavily with a 78 (+6) in the third round.
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