Kearsney College’s Reece Brown accepts his runners-up prize from the KZNGU President Brian Olsen at the prize giving following the recent KZN Players Championships held at Maritzburg Golf Club.

Juniors fare well at KZN Players Champs

Durban – At the recent KZN Players Championships held at the Pietermaritzburg Golf Club, KZN Junior golfers gave a good account of themselves with young Reece Brown finishing second after a dramatic play-off with Jason Broomhead.

17-year-old Kearsney pupil Brown showed his mettle to sink a 15-foot putt on the first play-off hole to extend the competition, however Broomhead displayed a calm head and won the title on the second hole of the play-off.

Of the 42 players that took part 18 of them were junior golfers, players under 19 years of age, and in tough conditions in Pietermaritzburg the players still managed to shoot some low scores.

After the first day it was Broomhead who was leading following his six-under-par round while another junior, Keagan Horner was second after he carded a five under par 67.

The next best placed juniors, Ryan Perumal and Reece Brown opened with a pair of 71’s, finishing the day tied for 5th, five shots back of the leader, Matthew Gouws and Ben Wilson a further shot adrift of the lead after opening rounds of level par 72 and tied for 10th place.

Day two saw the players take on 36 holes of stroke play and despite some tough conditions forecast, the weather held despite a difficult start to the day for the players.

The low round went to Reece Brown who was climbing his way up the leaderboard. The youngster followed up on his one-under-par first round 71 with an amazing seven-under-par 65, moving him from T5th on day one, into the lead after two rounds and one shot ahead of the first-round leader Jason Broomhead who posted a one-under-par round of 71 in his second round.

KZN Junior golfers continued to hold five spots in the top 10 of the leaderboard at the end of round two.

With the weather worsening as a result of a little more rain and a drop in temperature, round three lived up to its expectation, especially since only two shots separated the top three positions.

Second round leader Brown bettered his overall score by one shot in the final round to finish on nine-under-par through 54 holes.

Broomhead dramatically forced the play-off with a 20-foot putt from off the green on his final hole.

Men’s Amateur golfer Matthew Sutherland would finish in 3rd on his own, 3 shots back.

After the dramatic finish, Junior Golf Administrator for KZN Golf Neil Bennett was impressed by the showing of the Under-19 players against some far more experienced players.

“Generally, KZN’s junior golfers acquitted themselves well in the 54 holes tournament,” Bennett said.

“Reece played really nicely and was just edged out in a play-off against a seasoned golfer in Jason Broomhead and Keagan Horner finished in a tie for fourth while Dian Wilmot finished in 6th place on his own on 3 under.

“James Truter finished in a tie for 7th on 1 under, and Harry Claton rounding out the strong junior performances by finishing T10 on level par.

“We’ve got an exciting year lined up for our junior golfers as we gear up for the IPT in Port Elizabeth at the end of the year and these sorts of performances are a good gauge on how they are coming along.”

ENDS

Nick Tatham

10 April 2024