Gauteng leaders gain and lose on the swings
● It is one of the ironies of golf that the top two players on the leaderboard of the Gauteng Championship, presented by Betway, are there because of two very different reasons.
For leader Neil Schietekat some necessary swing changes are starting to show the right results. And for second-placed Jbe’ Kruger, undoing the swing changes he made is also starting to show the right results.
Schietekat kept a grip on his 36-hole lead with a round of 69 in yesterday’s third round at the Ebotse Links, lifting him to 16-under par overall in this Sunshine Tour event. For the first time this week the Ebotse Links played true to its name thanks to a good breeze, and it took a birdie at the last to pull Schietekat out of a tie for the lead with Kruger. Kruger had set the clubhouse target at 15 under with his third round of 67.
It has been the pursuit of the same goal, but via different routes, that has put Schietekat and Kruger in prime position chasing victory today.
“I’ve made a couple of changes to my swing because I had time to do it now,” said Schietekat. “They were a couple of changes I knew I needed to make but couldn’t make when we were playing regularly. So the break because of the pandemic gave me that opportunity.”
For Kruger, though, it’s been the opposite because he has spent the past few years trying to undo the swing changes he made in pursuit of improvement.
“My strength was always my ball striking. I was good because I hit the ball really well. I always said I just needed to make putts to score well, because I knew I never had to worry about my ball striking. But the last few years that hasn’t been the case. In my desire to improve, I lost that strong point to my game,” he said.
He’s not alone here. In 2011 Luke Donald became the first golfer to win both the European Tour and PGA Tour Order of Merits in the same season. But his lack of major success convinced him that he needed to change his swing. The former world No 1 is now world No 548. Even Rory McIlroy recently admitted that in his quest to gain more swing speed and chase the gains made by Bryson DeChambeau, he has lost critical elements of the swing that made him the brightest star of his generation.
MJ Viljoen heads into the final round just two shots off the lead. But not for the first time since the resumption of the tour this month, the leaderboard is packed tight thanks to the low scoring. Only four shots separate the top 10 players.