Albert Venter earned his maiden Sunshine Tour title on Sunday when he won the FBC Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare Golf Club on the second hole of a three-way sudden-death play-off.
Venter carded a closing six-under-par 66 to finish on 10-under-par for the tournament together with Stefan Wars-Taylor, who also signed for a 66, and Louis Albertse, who had a five-under 67 in the fourth round. The trio finished two shots clear of American rookie Dan Erickson and South African veterans Louis de Jager and Jaco Ahlers.
The leading trio all made par on their first extra journey up the 18th in the play-off, and then Venter managed to sink his birdie putt on the second extra play-off hole to edge out the other two.
In regulation play, Venter birdied the 16 to get to 10-under, but he wasn’t able to pick up a shot on the final two holes to pull clear. This was after, in 10 holes from the seventh to the 16th, he made eight birdies and two bogeys in an incredible run of play to get into contention.
Wears-Taylor came even closer to pulling it off in regulation play, as he birdied 16 and 17 to hit the front at 11-under. Unfortunately, he made bogey on 18, and then was unable to hold off Venter in the play-off.
Albertse, who won his maiden Sunshine Tour title last season, birdied the 16th and 18th in regulation play to get to 10-under and book a spot in the play-off.
Venter turned professional in 2017, and had a win and a number of top-10 finishes on the Big Easy Tour before pulling off his first Sunshine Tour top-10 with a share of fourth in the SunBet Challenge-Time Square last August. A couple of weeks later, he finished in a share of second in the Sunshine Tour Invitational. Those performances gave him a 69th-place finish on the Order of Merit.
He might have missed the cut in last week’s Sunshine Tour season-opening Lombard Insurance Classic, but he has more than made up for that with this victory.
