Germany’s Alexander Knappe birdied the last hole on Sunday to pull off an emotional one-stroke victory in the Sunshine Tour’s Dimension Data Pro-Am, co-sanctioned with the Challenge Tour.
The tall German, who has history at Fancourt, saw Dean Burmester ahead of him make par on the par-five closing hole on the Montagu layout at Fancourt. Knappe played the hole to perfection to make a four and edge out Burmester who had made his move with a superb third round, but was unable to match those pyrotechnics to close out the win.
Knappe, who has played in the Dimension Data Pro-Am since 2016, when he came third behind George Coetzee, spends quite a bit of time practicing at Fancourt, so the win meant a lot to him.
“Fancourt is like a home for me. I live here on the estate. The three courses here are so good to practice on and get ready for tournaments. South Africa is really lovely, and George is special to me. I’ve played so many rounds at Fancourt,” said Knappe, who also came fourth in the 2018 edition, “and I’ve wanted to win this tournament for so long. This is a dream come true.”
It was a week of both consistent and superb golf from Knappe, who didn’t drop a shot on 72 holes around all three courses at Fancourt. He made 65 on Outeniqua, 67 on The Links, 66 in the third round on Montagu, and then his closing 68 rounded things out for him. He made one eagle and 21 birdies during the week, and that kind of scoring is always difficult to match. He finished just two shots off the record-breaking 25-under-par set by Christiaan Bezuidenhout in his 2020 triumph.
Burmester will look back on his final round and rue the fact that he made birdie on just one of the four par-fives in his final rounds, and, for a man who is as long as he is off the tees, those three par-fives – including the final hole – represent lost opportunities. There was also a bogey on the par-four sixth which hampered his charge to the top of the leaderboard.
The top two players had separated themselves from the pursuers, and third place went to New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier on 18-under-par. Sharing fourth were South Africa’s JC Ritchie and Neil Schietekat who were on 16-under-par with Dane Nicolai Kristensen.
“It was good competition with Dean,” said Knappe, “and four rounds bogey free on these golf courses is an unbelievable feeling for me. I just love this place so much. I’ve spent so many hours on these courses – in the rain, when there’s been a threat of lightning, when nobody has been out here I’ve been working on these greens, and when it happened now all that hard work just came out in tears. I really wanted it, and now it’s a reality.”
