GARY PLAYER SCHOOL FOR CHAMPIONS' No: 1 PLAYER, Haydn Porteous clinches SA Amateur Stroke Play title

BREAKING NEWS! Glendower Golf Club, 10th February 2012

Haydn Porteous, shares his emotion with fellow SCHOOL student, Musi Nethunzwi, seconds after clinching the SA Amateur Stroke Play title.

GARY PLAYER SCHOOL FOR CHAMPIONS #1 player, Haydn Porteous, closed out the South African Stroke Play Championship with an even-par 72 in the final round, despite intense pressure from Italy's Andrea Bolognesi. After leading by 3 with 8 holes to play, Haydn found himself 2 behind with only 5 to play, following a disastrous double-bogey at the par-5 13th. He would have been forgiven for tearing up his victory speech at this point, but instead he dug deep to show why he is known as one of the toughest competitors in South African amateur golf by playing the last 5 holes in 2-under par.

"I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry - this has just been one of most unbelievable moments of my life", declared Haydn.

Playing with Bolognesi and GARY PLAYER SCHOOL FOR CHAMPIONS' development star Musi Nethunzwi in the final group, Haydn began his title charge one shot behind the Italian and one ahead of a chasing pack which included Nethunzwi, Brandon Stone and Englishman Toby Tree, winner of last week's Gauteng North Open Amateur title. After stretching his lead to 3, he bogied the 12th after an errant tee shot and then arrived at his problem hole for the week.

“I haven’t been able to make anything happen at 13 this week and I had no confidence standing on the tee. Walking to the 14th tee, I realised I would have to make a few birdies coming home to put pressure on Andreas."

Haydn delivered the shot of the tournament at the par-five 15th, where he pulled off a life-changing flop shot to match Bolognesi’s birdie.

”That was the best flop shot of my life,” said Porteous. “I was 30 metres out with no green to work with but it came out perfectly and finished about three foot from the hole."
At the par-three 17th Bolognesi found the green, albeit a good 15 metres below the hole. The way he had been putting, it appeared he had wrapped up the title, unless Haydn made his 3m chance after a magnificent tee shot. As if scripted by a great novelist, Haydn boxed his birdie putt and Bolognesi missed his par putt to send them up 18 all square. The difference on the long par-4 18th was that Haydn's approach left him with an uphill putt, whilst Bolognesi flew his approach past the pin to leave himself a treacherous downhiller. Bolognesi missed and the ball rolled 1.5m past. Haydn's putt lipped out to tap-in distance and, when Bolognesi recorded only his second 3-putt of the round, Haydn tapped in for victory.

“I took my time, stuck to my routine, even when I just faced a tap-in,” said Porteous. “I drank a little water, checked the line, all the normal stuff, just to calm myself down. I was so relieved when that putt dropped, I didn’t know what to do for about 10 seconds."

Haydn will now join the rest of the hopefuls at the Sanlam SA Amateur Championship at Mowbray Golf Club from February 26. “I’m definitely going to go for the double,” he said. “Being match play with a two round qualifier, it’s a lot more golf, but I’ll be lot more positive than last year."

All in all it was a great week for GARY PLAYER SCHOOL FOR CHAMPIONS students, with Nethunzwi grabbing 11th place and Callum Mowat 15th, whilst 16-year-old Jason Froneman and development star Jon Raphunga both made the cut and finished inside the top 50. No less than 8 of Haydn's fellow students will be teeing it up at Mowbray in search of another major title for the GARY PLAYER SCHOOL FOR CHAMPIONS in 2012.