Coetzee snags back nine at Joburg Open

CALL him the Renaissance man. Veteran Wallie Coetzee, who once nearly quit golf to run a paint business, roared on the back nine yesterday to keep his fairytale Joburg Open alive.

Coetzee goes into the final round today on 14 under par with a two-shot lead, but within four strokes of him is a chasing pack of 14.

They include defending champion George Coetzee and Andy Sullivan of England, who came from seven shots behind to win the SA Open last month.

Four players are on 12 under par: Jacques Blaauw, Tjaart van der Walt and the English duo of David Howell and Steve Webster, who fired the lowest score of the day, a seven under par 65.

Coetzee scored only 70 on the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington club’s East course, but it featured five birdies and three bogeys.

Where he really impressed was by firing four birdies on the back nine — only three others in the field achieved that, and all of them went off before 8.20am.

Coetzee, who started at 12.25pm, had to contend with the wind and drizzle of an incoming afternoon storm. But his toughest moment came on the first hole where he experienced nerves like never before in his long career, during which he has notched up two Sunshine Tour wins, 17 years apart.

“Then I knew what nerves is. I’ve never felt it before like that,” said Coetzee, explaining that he was unable to feel the putter in his hands. “But it was actually a blessing in disguise because after that I just relaxed and I said, ‘it’s just a game’.”

The 42-year-old made a hash of what should have been a regulation two-putt on the par-four fourth as he three-putted for his first bogey of the day.

“I think I over-concentrated on the line, not the pace. You need to concentrate a lot on the pace on these greens.

“But that was another wakeup call because on the next I hit a brilliant eight iron to about five or six foot, and that one I hit too hard.

“And on the next one as well I missed a short one for birdie,” added Coetzee, who says his game improved after moving

I think I overconcentrated on the line, not pace. That was a wake-up call

from Tzaneen in Limpopo to Jeffrey’s Bay in Eastern Cape nearly three years ago.

“But my coach said to me don’t worry if you miss on the first nine because then on the second nine you’ll make them. And he was right.”

He burst to life with three straight birdies from 11 to 13 to reclaim his swagger. A bogey four on 16 was cancelled out by a birdie on the par-five 18th.

This ou ballie looks ready for his maiden European Tour win.