Grid no 3 provides for some thrilling long drive action
The winners / losers pool was set for some up and down sets with Marco and Thorne both losing a set and dropping into the losers pool.
The third event (Grid no 3) of Grid Pro Xtreme long driving competition took place at the Grasslands driving range on March 20.
According to the owner of the Grid Pro, Stephen van Zyl, it was a great day.
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“We started at 8am with our seniors who came out firing, competing in four sets of qualifying,” said Stephen.
The senior field consisted of only six players with Johan du Plessis and Wynand Ross competing in the finals.
“Johan kept Wynand on his toes for six balls and then Wynand let fly with a winning drive of 331.3m to claim the longest drive and the title of Grid no 3,” he said.
Johan and his brother Hennie, a teaching professional tag, teamed up to get their revenge on Stephen and Wynand by winning the tag-team event.
“Next on the agenda was our men’s pro and amateur combined in an open event,” he said.
“Five sets to qualify for six spots, and then a buyback-in to fill two more spots.”
Professionals hitting against the amateurs looked to be no easy feat.
“To everyone’s surprise, we had some great distances recorded by the amateurs,” said Stephen.
“Nico Smuts was the leader among the amateurs for the day and took his second win placing first, with a close second going to Damien Trollip.”
They were in second and third place behind Mel van Vreeden.
The winners and the losers pool were set for some up and down sets with Marco and Thorne both losing a set and dropping into the losers pool.
“Jason Vickers on the other hand was cruising through the winner’s pool not losing a single match and waiting for an opponent in the finals,” he said.
Thorne van Zyl had to win five matches in a row to fight his way back out of the loser pool, knocking out some favourites like Marco das Neves and Jason Cook who already beat Thorne in the winner’s pool.
Nico Potgieter won over David Melman, who also faced Thorne and lost to him.
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Long driving brings out new champs
Thorne now had to win twice in the elimination finals against the ever-improving Jason Vickers.
“Thorne won the first finals match to Jason and they now had to change boxes for the final round in which Jason claimed his first fantastic win this season,” explained Stephen.
“Thorne now has three second-place wins in the last three events with the fourth event being a double point’s event taking place on April 10.
“Marco das Neves took the longest drive of the day with a 387m drive, followed by Jason with a 380.6m drive and Thorne van Zyl recording 370.8m.
“Congratulations to all our winners on the day, and thank you to all our spectators and fans.”
