Round six of Xtreme Long Driving delivers plenty of thrills

Round six of the Grid Pro Xtreme Long Drive SA event was held recently at its normal spot, the Grasslands Driving Range in Benoni.

Golfers were greeted with a crisp and clear seven-degree morning, with a shortcut winter grid, which was prepared and waiting to be taken advantage of.

The senior-amateurs started the day

“What a division it was, five players in a round-robin and some new guys and old faces back on the tee box,” said Stephen van Zyl, Grid Pro owner.

“Some great hitting by our old boys with the longest drive of the day going to Chris Harmse with a 365m hit (399 yards).”

The finals of the senior amateur division came down to Anton Nel and Chris Harmse with Anton taking the win from Chris Harmse with his final OB set, claiming his first senior victory of the season.

Third place went to Johan du Plessis, who currently leads the overall points standing in the senior division and Grid Pro SA Stephen van Zyl took fourth place with his 340m (371 yards) drive.

ALSO READ: 

Grid Pro need sponsors for trophies

Up next was the combined pro and amateur qualifying sets

“Boy did it turn out to be a humdinger of a qualifying round,” said van Zyl.

“The last event winners started the day with Marco das Neves facing Thorne van Zyl in the opening sets with over 400 yards being hit.”

Thorne took the points to win on his first set of the day and set the tone to what would turn out to be a crowd-pleasing day, which over 240 people attended.

“By the second set, we already had Jason ‘The Hammer’ Vickers hitting a set of 442 yards, Marco hitting 438 yards and Corne Duvenage 429 yards,” he explained.

The third set started getting heated when Jason Cook faced off against Vickers.

“Vickers took that set by a winning drive of 470 yards,” said van Zyl.

“This started levelling out the points standing for the point’s event of the day.”

 

Then it was the final, fourth set, in which some greater hitting was seen from all the top professionals

“By the fourth set, we had four players hit their drives over 440 yards and this brought two players into the points finals of the day being Thorne versus Corne. Each at that time were on 700 points,” he said.

According to van Zyl, the amateurs division had some of the best hitting he had ever seen for a very long time.

“Late entry Dalton Smalburger hit a few surprising long drives in his qualifying sets and then unleashed and massive drive of 440m and this brought up the finals between Chris McDuling and Dalton,” he said.

The finals came down to the wire with Dalton hitting a 412m drive over Mel van Vreeden’s 380-yard drive.

“McDuling and Ulrich van Schalkwyk (in his first-ever long drive event) found themselves in the other semi-final with both of them hitting a set of 406 yards. This led to hitting out a second set and McDuling took it with a final 384-yard drive,” he said.

The finals were set for Dalton versus McDuling.

“Constant hitting by both players, but it was Dalton’s day. Not only did he hit the longest ball of the day, but he also won his first amateur finals with a 422-yard drive,” said van Zyl.

With the amateur finals been completed, they were now faced with a top-six men’s pro event and a buyback in a round where the top amateurs and bottom-ranked pros could buy back in one set.

The longest two drives would then earn them their spots in the top eight men’s double-elimination finals.

“This was decided by Andrew Mare and Dalton, both hitting the longest ball in that set,” he said.

The top eight first matches

Jason Vickers versus Andrew Mare:

“Jason being ‘The Hammer’ really did hammer his first set with an opening drive of 460 yards, which led him to the next round.”

Dalton Smalburger versus Jason Cook:

“Dalton hit an OB set and Cook smashed a 433-yard drive to advance.”

Corne Duvenage versus Nico Potgieter:

“Corne took the win with a drive of 427 yards to advance into the winner’s pool.

Thorne Van Zyl versus Marco das Neves:

“This set the tone for what was going to be a final in a final. Thorne and Marco both hit four out of their six balls on the grid with Marco hitting a massive 461.2-yard drive while making a comment towards Thorne saying ‘go get that one’ and for once in my life, I thought Thorne van Zyl had an uphill battle to fight.”

“But Thorne stood up to the challenge and hit an enormous drive of 438.7m to advance into the winner’s pool with Marco dropping into the loser’s pool.”

Andrew Mare versus Dalton Smalburger:

“Dalton took the win with a 437-yard drive and Andrew dropped out of the completion with his second loss on a 422-yard drive.

Marco das Neves versus Nico Potgieter:

“Marco took care of his first loser pool match by knocking out Potgieter with a 440-yard drive to advance into stage two of the loser pool.

Marco das Neves versus Dalton Smalburger:

“I think the happenings of the day got to Dalton after being the winner in the amateurs division and hitting the longest ball of the day as he lost to Marco who hit a 451.2-yard drive to advance to stage three in the losers pool. Marco has been on top form for the past five events.”

Jason Vickers and Jason Cook:

“Jason Cook took this set with a 452-yard drive and Vickers dropped into the loser pool with his ‘nothing to shrug off’ drive of the 442-yard drive.”

Thorne faced Cook in the semi-final and a very close fought set with Thorne hitting a 447.4-yard drive and Cook dropping to third overall with a 442.9-yard drive.

ALSO READ: 

Grid Pro round five delivers thrills

Loser pool action

Marco had to beat the winner of match 11 between Vickers versus Corne.

“In a close set, Corne edged out Vickers with a 442-yard drive and Vickers dropping out a fifth place overall,” said van Zyl.

“Corne now had to face the ever-consistent Marco who had won two previous events and was in top form, beating Corne and Cook in the next two matches to face up against Thorne in their fourth final of the year. Corne losing to Marco got fourth place overall for the day.”

Finally, there was another final in which Marco coming out of the loser pool had to beat Thorne twice to claim his third win of the season.

Thorne on the other hand had come off three consecutive second-place placings and now had the opportunity to claim his first win of the 2021 season.

“In the first of two finals, Marco just edged out Thorne. Thorne and Marco have done this before with Thorne winning the last two South African finals against Marco. It came down to the wire in the final two balls of the set with Marco hitting a 443.6-yard drive and Thorne hitting one of his finest sets in months to claim his first win of the season with a 448.1-yard drive.

“But I think the division of the day went to the ‘Dads and Lads’ tag team, which ended in darkness, with Greagan Horn and Etzart Goetze replacement dad for Greagan, winning spectacularly,” he said.

Thorne now leads the order of Merit leader board for the first time this year and also leads the Xtreme Long Drive points race to Coghill in Chicago come September.

“What a fantastic showing of long driving I have seen in years and thanks to the hundreds of friends, fans and family coming out to show their support for all our athletes’ senior, amateurs and professionals,” he concluded.

The next event will take place on July 3.