Drikus Joubert eked out his first professional win on Wednesday as he carded a two-under-par 70 at Serengeti in the final round of the Bushveld Tour’s Race to Q-School Wanna Be a Champion Series #2.
He held off a charge from Clinton Grobler, who had a final round of six-under 66 to finish second one stroke back, and pulled clear of 36-hole leader amateur Chris Long, who battled to a two-over 74 to finish in third place a further shot behind Joubert.
Joubert started his final round with a bogey, but he made up for that immediately with three successive birdies from the second. He made another gain on the 10th hole immediately after the turn, but a double-bogey seven on the par-five 11th set him back. A birdie on 14 put him in from and he held his nerve all the way home with pars on the remaining holes.
Rigardt Albertse finished in fourth after a closing 71, and there were five players in a share of fifth: Christiaan Burke, amateur Crismar Engelbrecht, Bryan Baumgarten, Marthin Scheepers and Philip Geerts.
The win put Joubert in a share of the lead of the Order of Merit for the three-tournament series with amateur Werner Deyzel, with Albertse in third.
The Race To Q-School Series is made up of three separate series of events. This is the third series. Each series is made up of three tournaments and will have its own Order of Merit. The top four finishers from each series will receive paid entry fees into Sunshine Tour Qualifying-School in April. Any Q-school exempt players finishing in the top four of each series will win the cash equivalent of a Q-school entry fee, that is R8,000.
