Martin Rohwer and Merrick Bremner put together a six-under-par 66 on Friday in the foursomes round of the Sunshine Tour’s Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship at Blue Valley Golf Estate to open up a four-stroke lead.
Playing alternate shot, the pair made seven birdies and just one bogey in a format which could have meant make or break for their chances ahead of the final round which reverts to betterball play as was the case in the first round. With that good score added to their opening 12-under, the pair led Daniel van Tonder and MJ Viljoen, who had a five-under in the second round, and Jaco Prinsloo and Clinton Grobler who signed for a three-under 69.
“Marty and I played a practice round here on Tuesday to work things out,” said Bremner, “and I felt that reaching 30-under would be tough to beat. So if we can repeat our first-round score – and there are plenty of opportunities around here – that’s where we’ll be. And someone’s going to have to go 16-under or better, which is a little unlikely.
“Marty and I played together in the Serengeti Pro-Am just after Covid, and we really clicked well there. We cleaned up. So although we don’t play this form of golf that often, we complement each other’s games really nicely,” added Bremner.
As a measure of how difficult foursomes can be, overnight leaders Estiaan Conradie and Fredrik From of Sweden, who had a 15-under 57 in betterball play in the first round, slumped to three-over in the second round to slip to a share of sixth on 12-under. But if they can reproduce that form in the final round, it will be a heck of a ride.
Rohwer and Bremner started their round on the 10th, and soon picked up a birdie on the par-three 12th. Another came immediately thereafter on the par-five 13th, but that was the sum of their gains on their outward nine. They made three birdies in four holes immediately after the turn, on the first, third and fourth. They would have felt an opportunity was lost when they parred the par-five fifth, but they picked up birdies on six and nine. Their sole bogey came on the par-three eighth.
“We ended up in the bunker off the tee, and I hit quite a good shot from there to about five feet,” said Bremner. “Marty hit a good putt, but it just slid by.”
In a share of fourth going into the final round were Luke Brown and Hayden Griffiths, who had a five-under to move to 13-under for the tournament, and Luca Filippi and Ryan van Velzen, who were steady with their two-under 70.
