If strength comes through adversity, then Thriston Lawrence’s one-stroke win on Sunday in the Investec South African Open Championship at Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate has turned him into one of the toughest players around.
In the end, a lead that was as big as six strokes dwindled in a heartbeat to just one as Lawrence took his foot off the pedal and let Clement Sordet of France get back within just a shot. And, but for a Sordet bogey on 17, and just a par on the gettable par-five 18th, Lawrence could have been left ruing things instead of celebrating them.
“I got a little conservative down the stretch and it cost me a little,” he said. “It felt all easy going through the round, and then golf happened at the end. Clement was playing really well, and I was playing well, and then, like I say, golf happened.”
But Lawrence was able to hold on while the world seemed to implode around him to take his third DP World Tour title, and undoubtedly the biggest win of his career. To lift the trophy for the world’s second-oldest open championship has elevated him into the company of some local and international legends of the game.
“I used to dream of this moment as a kid,” he said. “Words can’t describe it. To do it in front of my friends and family… I want to cry. I’ve got no words.”
That he didn’t cry when he made double-bogey on the par-four 15th was perhaps more surprising. “It was an unfortunate hole for me on 15,” he said. “I got the wind wrong on 15. I went on a conservative route, and I shouldn’t have. I’ve been aggressive all week and I hit a bad shot at the wrong time. It was a momentum change that I almost couldn’t shift.
“Towards the end, in fact, I made a few mistakes when I missed it on the wrong side and couldn’t score from there. I made a good bounce back. In the end, there’s no remarks column on a scorecard. I managed to get it done and I’m really pleased.”
