VICTORY FOR

with a birdie on the fifth and racked up four more and he was the man to catch as a round of 68 gave him a 13-stroke lead on 25-under.

With Albert Kruger’s record 30-under-par 258 in the 2002 Eastern Gauteng Open at ERPM GC in his sights, the Gauteng North junior was relentless, and it took him only 10 holes to match the magic number.

He fired three birdies on the trot from the first and racked up further gains on the fifth, seventh and 10th holes. Further birdies on 12, 15 and 16, for a final round 63, saw him put an exclamation mark behind a feat unmatched in South African golfing history.

The new record may have been set in an amateur event, but Bennett was delighted to learn that he matched the PGA Tour record of Cameron Smith, who outduelled Jon Rahm to win the 2022 PGA Tournament of Champions on 34-under 258 at the par-73 Plantation Course at Hawaii.

“Wow, Cameron is such big name and to know that I matched his record, it pretty amazing,” said an elated Bennett. “It feels really cool to match someone of that calibre.”

Even before the match play victory at CC Johannesburg, Bennett had shown signs of a player whose form was trending in the right direction with a seventh place finish in the African Amateur Stroke Play at Leopard Creek, a top 10 in the SA Stroke Play Championship and a quarter-final spot in the SA Amateur | Championship.

“I think my game has been heading in the right direction,” he added. “I changed my grip just before I went to the Northern Amateur and this week, just before the tournament teed off, I changed my putter. I am really happy with the changes I made because I can now see the results. I’ve been working really hard with my coach Nico van Rensburg at Silver Lakes; just grinding and working hard every week.

FINAL RESULT – TOP 10

254 Daniel Bennett 62 61 68 63

275 Matthew Lotz 70 67 71 67

278 Luc Gavagnin 72 69 68 69; Dylan Kayne 66 67 71 74

279 Jack Buchanan 67 70 72 70; Charl Barnard 72 71 64 72

280 Pearce Lewin 65 66 79 70

281 Janko van der Merwe 72 69 72 68; Keagan Crosbie 71 68 72 70

282 Jonathan Wilsenach 72 70 73 67