Kian Rose fell short of a win on his Betway Big Easy Tour debut at Reading Country Club a month ago but the 23-year-old redeemed himself with a commanding five-stroke win in this week’s Betway Big Easy Blu Label Invitational.
The event, originally scheduled as a 54-hole tournament, was reduced to a 36-hole event due to multiple delays that were caused by a combination of bad weather and poor light.
An opening round of five-under-par 66 set him for a place among the contenders, giving him another shot at a win at the place where he came so close just a month ago. He was not going to let it go this time.
He rose to the occasion with a sparkling eight-under-par 63 to take his total to 13-under. He had to go sleep on that, however, as the second round couldn’t be finished on Tuesday on account of poor visibility due to fading light. While there seemed to be players who could possibly unseat him at the summit of the leaderboard during the final round, they all fell off on Wednesday when play resumed.
“That first event here was bitter-sweet,” recalled Rose who plays out of Royal Johannesburg Golf Club. “I was in the last group and I had a putt on the last hole to push it into a play-off and I left it in the mouth. That one tasted a little bitter but it also forced me to push myself a little more. So, coming out here again this week, it was a bit of a redemption story for me to regather myself and I ended up getting it done.”
Having tasted that defeat here, Rose was up to the challenge this week. And challenging it was. His five birdies and an eagle in the final round proved too great to surmount, handing him his first professional win within his first two months of turning professional.
“After the round, I got asked how I feel about it,” Rose said of his scintillating final round. “I didn’t have an answer because it was sort of like a blackout. But after the round I gathered my thoughts and looked back at the round and the stats, and I realised I had 21 putts for the round. The flat stick got hot. The two holes that I got out of position off the tee, I ended up birdieing and eagling, so everything sort of aligned to what I wanted and I played just about as good as I could have.”
With his professional career now off to a bright start, Rose will be keen to see his stock rise even higher and having earned himself an invite into next week’s Limpopo Championship on the Sunshine Tour, he will have more reasons to be optimistic about his chances among the elite in professional golf.
“It’s been good,” he says of his short time as a professional. “I’m excited to get this professional journey underway. It’s a dream come true for me.”
