A superb closing seven-under-par 64 on Wednesday sealed a win that was a long time coming for Dylan O’Leary in the Bushveld Tour’s Race to Q-School #10 at Centurion Country Club.
O’Leary made an eagle, six birdies and a bogey to move to 12-under-par for the 54-hole tournament and pull two clear of amateur Jacques van der Merwe, Warwick Purchase and Graham van der Merwe, who all finished on 10-under in a share of second. Stals Swart came fifth on nine-under.
O’Leary chased down 36-hole leader Werner Deyzel, who has won three times on the series since it began last November, after starting the final round four shots adrift of the lead. While Deyzel was battling to a six-over-par 77 and slipping to a share of 17th, O’Leary got the afterburners on early in his round.
O’Leary made three birdies in his first four holes, before making his only bogey of the day on the par-four sixth. A birdie on seven and a hole-out eagle two on the ninth soon fixed that, and he wrapped things up with a steady homeward nine which included birdies on 16 and 18.
O’Leary had had four top-10s in the series before his victory, including a second-place finish in Race to Q-School #6 at Kyalami Country Club at the end of January, where he was unable to chase Deyzel down.
His win propels him to second on the Order of Merit for the series behind Deyzel. There are 13 tournaments in the series, which will be followed by the Tour Championship on May 2 at Ebotse.
