His approach to the final hole eventually typified the quality of his victory as JJ Senekal hit it to a foot for birdie on the 18th at Zebula Golf Estate and Spa to win the Sunshine Tour’s and Challenge Tour’s SDC Open by four shots.
Senekal’s birdie-birdie finish to his closing seven-under-par 65 finally deflated the charge from rookie Casey Jarvis who had pulled himself up by his bootstraps to within one stroke with two holes to play – one of them a par-five. But a bogey by Jarvis on the par-three 17th effectively ended his challenge, and Senekal had his superb finish to celebrate his third win on the Sunshine Tour and his first on the Challenge Tour.
“That approach on 18 was a big relief,” said Senekal who had declined the temptation to go for the tucked pin protected by water in front and left in two shots and laid up. “I didn’t think I had hit it pin-high. I thought I’d hit it short but once I saw the ball next to the hole, and I knew had a three-shot lead and would have a tap-in for birdie, it was all the world of pressure off my shoulders. I just enjoyed the walk up the 18th.
“It was very emotional, actually. I put a lot of hard work into this starting at the beginning of last year. My coach has done a phenomenal job with my swing, and I can’t thank him enough.”
It was a dominant display on so many fronts from Senekal. He wasn’t as accurate off the tee as he could have been, but he was never badly out of position; and he only hit 13 of 18 greens in regulation, but it was enough to keep him able to get into position to try and make the birdies. But it was a marked improvement in his putting which saw him playing the way he did in his superb first-round 62 which set him up for the win.
He had made 30 and 32 putts in rounds two and three after having just 25 in the first round. There were just 25 again in the final round. “The improvement in my putting today comes down to hard work, I guess,” he said. “I was standing on the putting green after my round yesterday trying to figure it out. I don’t think I did figure it out, but I got something going. I made a couple of putts early on and I made a couple of putts at the end when it counted.”
If Jarvis is to sit down and coldly analyse why he fell short of a maiden victory after three top-10s, he’ll possibly finger his wedge play, which was fractionally inconsistent during a stretch of 11 holes during which he was no better than par after a start of three birdies on the trot. But a win is coming.
Behind Jarvis, Pieter Moolman and Jaco Prinsloo shared third on 19-under with contrasting finishes: Moolman made bogey from a lay-up on 18, and Prinsloo chipped in for birdie from behind the green from a similar tactic.
For the 35-year-old Senekal, the win validates his persistence and the work he has done over the last year to rebuild a career that could so easily have petered out. It lifts him to fourth on the Sunshine Tour’s Luno Order of Merit and gives him encouragement in evaluating his path to international golf.
