Ekurhuleni celebrates Women’s IPT double
Ekurhuleni made a strong case for their title defence with a 23-shot victory over Western Province in the 36-hole seeding round.
Twelve months after they marched to a historic first victory in Stellenbosch, Ekurhuleni was in ascendancy again in the 59th South African Women’s Inter-Provincial Championship at Riviera on Vaal Golf and Country Golf Club.
The defending champions put an exclamation mark behind an unbeaten week when they staved off a spirited assault from Western Province in a closely contested final round to claim the union’s second successive victory in the prestigious annual team event at the end of September.
“The team performed from the word go, winning the seeding round and delivering in every match to defend the title,” said Ekurhuleni captain Caitlyn Macnab.
“We demanded perfection from each other and everyone stood up to be counted. Winning all our matches for two successive years says everything about the players on this team. We might be a young team, but our determination to succeed was unmatched and that’s why took the cup home again,” added the Serengeti golfer.
Ekurhuleni made a strong case for their title defence with a 23-shot victory over Western Province in the 36-hole seeding round. After a clean sweep in the foursomes, the 2018 champions racked up four points in the singles to beat Boland 7 – 2 in the match play opener. A 6.5 – 2.5 victory set up a highly anticipated final round clash with 2017 champions Province, who downed Gauteng 5 – 4 in the first round and knocked out Boland 7 – 2 in the second.
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“It was like a replay of last year’s final,” said Macnab. “I managed to go one-up on seven and I was three-up through 15, but then Kaylah (Williams) hit back and won the 16th and 17th holes. We were coming off the 17th green when the team arrived to tell me they had done it. That took some pressure off.”
The country’s top ranked amateur missed the green, but hit a brilliant chip and lagged her first putt inches from the hole, putting pressure on Williams to convert her birdie putt to square the game. She missed the opportunity and Macnab’s one-up win for a 5.5 – 3.5 victory over WP put the seal on an unbeaten week.
“It’s such an honour to captain this side. Strategically I think we did really well setting up our pairings and we executed really well in our singles. This was absolutely a team effort. We are very proud to the part of the success of Ekurhuleni.”
For the first time in history Ekurhuleni owns three inter-provincial titles at the same time. The juniors defended successfully in December last year and earlier this month, the premier team won the SA Inter-Provincial.
