SENEKAL ENJOYS WIRE-TO-WIRE WIN IN SDC OPEN

As JJ Senekal drove to the Zebula golf course for the final round of the SDC Open, his new favourite playlist was on the car radio. The volume was turned up to 21. That’s when he decided to turn it up to 25, to match his desired target of 25 under par to win this tournament.

A few hours later, Senekal rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th to win this Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour tournament with a final round of 65 and by four strokes. On 25 under par.

“It was very emotional. I put a lot of hard work into this starting from the beginning of last year. It all comes down to hard work. This means the world to me. I was knocking for quite a while now and this week was a good example of staying patient, playing good golf and knowing what to do and when to do it,” Senekal said after his wire-to-wire victory.

Casey Jarvis took second place on 21 under par with a closing 67, and the young South African threw everything at Senekal during a thrilling back nine in which he chipped in for eagle on the 15th and then holed a huge birdie putt on 16 to close to within one shot of Senekal with two holes to play.

“Keeping Casey off my back was hard. Well done to him. He played an unbelievable round of golf. He really chased me down on the back nine. He started firing over the last few holes but I did what I needed to and hit some good continued on page 65...