Benjamin Follett-Smith didn’t make a par until the ninth hole on Thursday on his way to a two-shot victory in the Bushveld Tour’s second event of the new season at State Mines Country Club.
He carded an eight-under-par 64 to give himself a good cushion over runners-up Herman Loubser and Ricky Hendler. Christiaan Burke and Vaughn van Deventer were in a share of fourth, with Chase Paton, Ryan Dreyer and Shaahid Mahmed tying for sixth.
Follett-Smith, the 2019 Cape Town Open champion on the Sunshine Tour, had a good finish in the Gauteng Championship when he shared 15th at Ebotse Links in the middle of March.
He started his round at State Mines with four straight birdies, but then he bogeyed the par-three fifth. He regained that shot with a birdie on the sixth, and then he made eagle-three on the par-five seventh. He dropped again on the eighth, before making his first par of the day on the ninth.
“I hit my drive down the right to keep it away from the water, and it clipped a tree,” said Follett-Smith of his eagle. “I had 213 in, and I hit a five-iron to two feet.”
After the bogey on nine, he was still focused on going as low as possible. “But then I fluffed my bride putt on nine, and I said to my caddie that I should just dial it back, and if I got hot again, ride that,” he said. The upshot was he birdied 10, made five successive pars, and then went birdie-par-birdie to round off his win.
“It’s good to get a win,” said Follett-Smith. “I missed the cut at last week’s Serengeti Pro-Am on the Sunshine Tour, with just one bad hole in the second round. So it’s not as if I’ve been playing badly, but this win does a lot for my confidence.”
