Prinsloo basks in the sun

JACO Prinsloo won his second Sunshine Tour title in three weeks yesterday when he carded a closing four-under-par 68 to take the Serengeti Pro-Am Invitational by a margin of two shots.

He had a shaky start with two bogeys in his opening five holes – admittedly matched with two birdies in the same stretch – but he settled down to turn in one-under 35 and come home with three more birdies on the back nine to finish two clear of overnight leader Jaco Ahlers, and three strokes ahead of MJ Viljoen and Neil Schietekat, who shared third on 11-under. That was after five rounds in an unusual format which included a rest day after the cut, and a third round on the par-three course at Serengeti.

“It wasn’t an ideal start,” said Prinsloo, “but at least I had made a birdie on one before the bogey on two. The there was a par, and after that I repeated the pattern of the first two holes. So it was a little concerning, but nothing major. And after that, I managed to keep the bogeys off the card, make a couple of birdies and, after I got myself in front, I managed to pull away.

“That’s probably thanks to my fast start with that 64 in the first round. After that, it was actually a bit of a grind, but I knew I could score well, and, thankfully, that all came together today.”

For Prinsloo, the addition of this victory to his triumph in the Players Championship hosted by Dainfern validates a lot of the hard work he has put in to get to the point where he is regularly regarded as a contender in any Sunshine Tour event in which he plays.”