Golf

South Africans shine in Sunshine Ladies Tour’s best season yet

SPORTSAREENA.comMarch 21, 2023

35 4 minutes read

While England’s Lily May Humphreys gained the 2023 Investec Order of Merit in the tenth season of the Sunshine Ladies Tour, whereas three South Africans completed in the highest 5.

Humphreys played all six tournaments, gained one, had 4 different prime 10s, and her worst end was in the Investec South African Women’s Open Championship at Steenberg Golf Club when she shared twenty fourth.

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Casandra Alexander finishes second to UK star

South Africa’s Casandra Alexander performed 4, gained two – the SuperSport Ladies Challenge and Jabra Ladies Classic – and a share of seventh at Steenberg noticed her end second in the rankings, inside placing distance of Humphreys on the finish.

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The different South Africans who rounded out the highest 5 had been Sunshine Ladies Tour rookie Kaleigh Telfer, who had three top-10s as she efficiently combined it up with the best gamers from Europe, and veteran Lee-Anne Pace, who did the whole lot however win with 4 top-10s.

In a pleasant little little bit of symmetry, the 2 different South Africans inside the highest 10 of the Order of Merit had been rookie Kiera Floyd in ninth with two top-10s, and the extra skilled Nicole Garcia in tenth place, who additionally had two top-10s.

“It’s pretty cool to win the Investec Order of Merit,” stated Humphreys. “I’m fairly comfortable about it. It’s been pretty much as good as I’ve performed. It’s been lots of golf, lots of totally different golf programs, and totally different climate just about each week. I’ve actually loved it out right here.

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“I ran out of steam a little towards the end. It wasn’t my best golf over the last few days at Steenberg, but I’ll just reset and get ready for what lies ahead. I’ll definitely come back and play these events again. I’ll have to see how the schedule looks because I’m a winner now. I’ll have a full schedule on the Ladies European Tour, which is pretty exciting.”

And that is precisely the pathway which makes the Sunshine Ladies Tour such an essential route for budding professionals.

Humphreys received her win in the Joburg Open, co-sanctioned between Africa’s premier ladies’s skilled circuit and the Ladies European Tour. It was the fifth occasion of the tenth season and he or she had performed her approach right into a place to win and leapfrog her approach into the massive time.

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Buhai a winner on Sunshine Ladies Tour

And whereas it was AIG Women’s Open champion Ashleigh Buhai who gained the opposite co-sanctioned match, Telfer was capable of convert her top-five end in the Investec South African Women’s Open right into a begin on the primary Ladies European Tour circuit with a spot in the Aramco Team Series-Singapore the next week.

That is a stepping stone which could possibly be decisive in her budding skilled profession.

Buhai talked concerning the significance of the native tour forward of her victory at Steenberg: “Obviously it’s incredible to see the way it’s grown, how the sponsors are beginning to assist ladies’s golf in South Africa. And you’ll be able to see it in the tendencies in ladies’s golf all over the world. All prize purses are beginning to enhance.

“I believe it’s so essential to have these occasions for the native ladies to have the ability to compete in, in order that they play on higher programs, with a stricter arrange that compares nicely with the worldwide circuits, and in stronger fields in order that they know after they’re able to take that subsequent step and the place they actually have to be.

“With six occasions on the tour now, I believe there’s area for development. I believe if we might get it to double figures no less than could be nice. And additionally not simply to have the circuit from February by way of April, however to increase it. They have to play all year-round to arrange higher for the subsequent stage. Maybe two a month no less than. We perceive that the purses may not be what it’s in these massive occasions, but it surely’s extra nearly with the ability to play, getting that recreation time.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you’re playing for, or how big or small the tournament is. When you’re in that moment, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same pressure of you trying to win a golf tournament.”

The groundwork for development has been laid. The ladies performed for R1.075-million 10 years in the past, and for over R16-million this 12 months on the Sunshine Ladies Tour. The six tournaments are all massive in their very own proper, and the way in which ahead is evident. Roll on 2024!

Ashleigh Buhai has clinched the Investec South African Women’s Open Championship by a four-stroke margin at Steenberg Golf Club. Photo: Tristan Jones | Ladies European Tour

FINAL ORDER OF MERIT TOP 20

Pos Name Points Tournaments

1 Lily May Humphreys (ENG) 2,681.25 (6)

2 Casandra Alexander (RSA) 2,171.00 (4)

3 Moa Folke (SWE) 2,120.63 (4)

4 Kaleigh Telfer (RSA) 1,516.50 (5)

5 Lee-Anne Pace (RSA) 1,362.92 (5)

Ashleigh Buhai (RSA) 1,140.00 (1)

6 Dorthea Forbrigd (NOR) 1,073.33 (6)

7 Anne-Lise Caudal (FRA) 1,056.81 (4)

8 Mireia Prat (ESP) 959.40 (4)

9 Kiera Floyd (RSA) 680.00 (5)