26 March 2021: A birdie on the 72nd hole earned Daniel van Tonder the right to wrestle with Jazz Janewattananond for honours in the Kenya Savannah Classic. The South African made the most of his late surge to secure his first European Tour title winning the third hole of the ensuing playoff. Shubhankar Sharma saved his best for last, producing a 66 to finish the week in T30. Gaganjeet Bhullar ended the week in T42 with a 72 in the final round.
The final round witnessed a slew of low scores, with five of them making 64 to alter the face of the leaderboard. Justin Harding hasn’t done much wrong over the past week, but a disappointing 73 saw his three-stroke advantage at the start of the day evaporate quickly.
Besides van Tonder and Janewattananond, Sam Horsfield, Calum Hill and Jacques Kruyswijk climbed up the order with matching scores of 64.
van Tonder was flowing like a river in spate, but back to back bogeys at the 14th and 15th threatened to steal his thunder. He was eight under before that mishap and the late bogeys left him barely a few holes to catch up with Janewattananond. The South African produced a clutch putt from distance on the final hole to force the playoff.
The playoff went around the 18th three times before van Tonder found a birdie on the third attempt to settle the duel. Both men finished at 21-under 263. It was his fifth victory from the last thirteen professional starts, with four of those wins coming on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.
“I’ve been playing well and working hard on the game, I’m overwhelmed. My wife and I have been a great team. I’m happy,” said an exultant van Tonder.
“I was thinking I’m usually a bit dangerous on the last few holes, I knew I could make a few birdies. Second-last hole I hit myself behind a tree, took some thinking of making a par. I told my wife on the last hole I’d put myself on the green, give myself a chance to make a putt and I did.
“I’m a bit different. I love pressure, if there’s pressure I get more in the zone. For me, I tried to keep it as easy as possible – hit the fairway first, then the second, put the other player under pressure and see what happens from there. I took it shot-by-shot and it worked.”
“It wasn’t really a break on Monday. I felt at the first tournament I wasn’t swinging it as well or trusting my shape. I missed the cut by one, after the finish – eagle, birdie, par, birdie – and missed by one. I didn’t let that get us down, I worked hard in the few days and it worked this week.”
Horsfield and Hill were just one shot back at 20-under in third place. Kruyswijk and David Drysdale (67) were a couple of strokes back at 18-under in a tie for fifth. Joost Luiten (65), Matthias Schwab (65) and Victor Dubuisson were tied in seventh at 17-under with four other golfers rounding off the top ten at 16-under.
