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Mbabane - It took Jake Redman nearly 10 years to get his maiden Sunshine Tour victory, and he pulled it off in a thriller with a one-stroke win on Sunday in the Lombard Insurance Classic at Royal Swazi Spa Country Club.
He carded a final round of five-under-par 67, with a nervy closing nine which included his only bogey of the round, on his way to the win over the charging pair of Toto Thimba and Thriston Lawrence. They each signed for seven-under 65, which left them on 19-under for the tournament and just one shot adrift.
“I don’t really have many words,” said Redman.
“I’m over the moon. It’s taken a hell of a long time. I’ve had a few seconds along the way, a few heartache moments and to eventually come out and win really feels great.
“There’s been a lot of hard work, endless support from my wife and my mom and dad. It’s unbelievable what I’ve gone through. I almost gave up, and now I got here to win.”
It was a win which improved on his runner-up finish in the 2014 edition of the tournament, and it was one which was achieved with and enormous amount of pressure being applied by a lot of the players around him - there was a 63 from Keenan Davidse who finished fifth, a pair of early 64s from Jake Roos and Daniel van Tonder, and the 66 from Ruan Conradie who finished fourth.
“With the pressure, it helped playing with Doug Mcguigan,” said Redman of his playing partner who finished in a share of sixth.
“He’s such a relaxed character and I just tried to keep myself calm, because sometimes you can get stuck in the moment and put a lot more pressure on yourself.”
The pressure showed during his homeward nine, as he made three consecutive pars and then dropped a shot to fall back into the clutches of his pursuers.
“I made a silly bogey on 13, and I thought to myself that I needed to get it to 20-under coming in to have a good chance,” he said.
“I hit some good shots coming in and I hit some good putts that didn’t go in, but I made some that did go in. To finish with a great drive on 17 which set up a birdie and to close it off with a par on 18 - I’m just really happy.”
In a week where he carded rounds of seven-under and eight-under in the lead up to his final round, there was clearly a lot about his game that was working well. But his putting stood out.
“I made a lot of good putts, a lot of clutch putts, especially coming in,” he said.
“I made a real clutch putt on 15 for birdie. I made a lot of nice lengthy putts outside 15 feet. I was really solid on the greens.
“Everything else was solid, apart from my driving. So it was really nice to get that one away on 17. I just thought, if I am going to hit a good one, it needs to be here, because it really sets up the hole. I could see the leaderboard was really tight and I needed a birdie. I absolutely cracked one down the middle.”
He made the birdie there with two putts, and then another two on the par-three 18th set up the win that was so long in coming.
“I’m really happy to get the money off my back, just to prove that I can do it with guys on this tour that are really good,” he said.
Scores:
196 - Jake Redman 65 64 67
197 - Toto Thimba 65 67 65, Thriston Lawrence 63 69 65
198 - Ruan Conradie 65 67 66
199 - Keenan Davidse 69 67 63
200 - Jaco Ahlers 64 69 67, Doug McGuigan 67 64 69
201 - Titch Moore 70 64 67
202 - Jake Roos 70 68 64, Ruan de Smidt 68 68 66
203 - Daniel van Tonder 69 70 64, Hennie Otto 66 68 69, Jacques Blaauw 63 71 69, Keith Horne 68 64 71
204 - CJ du Plessis 69 70 65, Vaughn Groenewald 69 67 68, Franklin Manchest 67 68 69, Clinton Grobler 65 67 72
205 - Lyle Rowe 69 71 65, Fredrik From 68 67 70
206 - Jaco Prinsloo 69 70 67, Pieter Moolman 68 69 69, Heinrich Bruiners 67 70 69, Neil Schietekat 68 67 71
207 - Combrinck Smit 71 67 69, Aubrey Beckley 64 69 74
208 - Chris Swanepoel 74 66 68, Merrick Bremner 69 70 69, Martin Rohwer 71 67 70, Chris Cannon 70 67 71, Steve Surry 68 69 71
209 - Jonathan Agren 69 71 69, Anton Haig 70 68 71, Estiaan Conradie 66 69 74
210 - Marco de Beer 69 71 70, Luke Joy 68 72 70, Jared Harvey 70 67 73
211 - Luke Jerling 69 68 74
213 - James Pennington 72 68 73, David McIntyre 69 71 73, Herman Loubser 70 69 74, Stefan Wears-Taylor 70 67 76
214 - Andrew van der Knaap 70 69 75, Derick Petersen 72 67 75
