Amateur Gina Places Best in SA

Neither of South Africa’s first-round or second-round amateur WPGA Masters leaders, Morgana Robbertze and Gina Switala, were able to push through to victory at the Parkview Golf Club in Johannesburg on Friday, where it was England’s Rebecca Hudson who emerged a triumphant play-off winner over the USA’s Anna Temple in the first of the four Ladies African Tour’s event.

After boasting rounds of 68 and 71 on the first two days, Robbertze suffered a terrible 79 on the final day, to finish 14 shots of the event winner in joint 19th place with Michelle de Vries, while Switala carded a more respectable 73 for a fifth place overall, six shots behind Hudson for the best-placed South African finish.

Pre-tournament favourite Ashleigh Simon had an uncharacteristically poor final round, finishing two-over for the day, which left her in joint seventh with her World Cup teammate Laurette Maritz.

Starting the day in the joint lead, Hudson started well, making birdie on the first hole of the day. A further three birdies on the front nine left her four-under for the day and two shots in the lead. "I sneaked a look at the leaderboard on the 9th, so I knew that I was a couple ahead, but I was determined to keep playing my own game and not try to protect my lead," she explained afterwards.

She played solidly on the back nine, but knew when she stood on the 18th tee that the USA’s Anna Temple had charged round in 64 to be the leader in the clubhouse, on 12-under for the three rounds.

That meant that Hudson had to birdie to tie and she did just that, hitting an eight iron from 126 yards to just six feet. "That left me with quite a straightforward putt, flat and just inside right, so I made it quite easily," said an ecstatic Hudson, above the din of the celebrations with her friends.

"Then in the playoff on the 18th, I hit my drive in pretty much the same place and had eight-iron in again. It wasn’t the best shot I hit all day, but it was good enough to get to about eight feet and I made the putt for the win. I must say that it feels just as good to win this one as it was to win the Women’s SA Open two years ago."

Hudson was extremely positive about the Ladies African Tour: "I really enjoy playing here. It is great preparation for the year ahead; the weather is great and the standard of competition just keeps getting better and better. With a little more prize money, I’m sure we would get some of the best players in the world coming over here to play."

The Tour now moves down to Durban for the Acer Women’s SA Open at Durban Country Club next week.