After a dramatic closing four holes on Wednesday, Bradley Bawden eventually triumphed in a three-way sudden-death play-off to win the Race to Q-School College Sports America Series #2 at the Els Club Copperleaf.
Bawden eagled the par-five 15th and birdied the 16th to hot the front with two holes to play. But he dropped a shot with a bogey on the 17th, and missed out on a birdie on the final hole. That meant he, second-round leader Yurav Premlall and first-round leader Luke Jerling were all tied up on 13-under-par. In the end, it was Bawden who emerged victorious from that shootout.
It was quite a chase from Bawden, and it started innocuously enough with two birdies on the front nine. He picked up two more on 11 and 13, before his eagle on 15. He signed for a closing 66, while Premlall had a one-under 71 and Jerling a two-under 70. Premlall had just one bogey on the front nine, but got that shot back with a birdie on the 15th. He put himself into the play-off with a birdie on the 18th. Jerling had two bogeys and a birdie on the front nine as he seemed to be slipping pout of contention. But three birdies in a row from the 10th, and another on the 15th saw him at the top of the leaderboard. He slipped back into the play-off with a bogey on 17, and, like Bawden, was unable to make birdie on 18 for the win.
The winner of the first tournament in the three-event series, Kyle Mclachlan, finished fourth on 11-under, two shots out of the play-off after a closing level-par 72. In fifth was Francois van der Merwe, who sliced through the field with his closing seven-under 65, the round of the day, to finish on 10-under.
Bawden’s win takes him to second on the order of merit for the series, while Mclachlan remains in top spot with one event to go at Modderfontein next week.
