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.
“I am really pleased with the state of my game and it’s a great feeling to have the monkey off my back. Having that maiden win under the belt just makes you keen to go onwards and upwards from here.”
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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