Gerhard Pepler made it a wire-to-wire effort on Wednesday when he carded a three-under-par 69 to win the IGT Challenge Tour’s Road to the Sunshine Tour #2 at ERPM Golf Club by four shots on 13-under-par.
Pepler had a five-stroke lead going into the final round, and he made the most of the buffer, making five birdies and two bogeys to keep well clear of second-placed Matthew Rushton, who closed with a four-under-par 68. That ultimately wasn’t enough to chase down Pepler, who shook off any possibility of faltering by regrouping well after the bogeys which came on six and 14.
Pepler was making it look as if he could run away with things when he made three consecutive birdies on the front nine, on the third, fourth and fifth, but the first drop on the sixth made him circumspect and he had pars all the way until the 12th, where he picked up his fourth birdie. After the drop on 14, he again kept things together until he birdied 17 to make sure of his win.
Rushton had an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys in his 68, and he finished the tournament on nine-under-par. That was six shots clear of Jason Froneman and Coert Groenewald, who shared third on three-under. Marthin Scheepers was in fifth on two-under.
