Biggest win for Burnand

With a single shot, Ekurhuleni’s Jordan Burnand recently fired a final-round three-under-par 67 around Mount Edgecombe’s The Woods course to claim the biggest title of his career, the South African Stroke Play Championship.

The 23-year-old almost didn’t make it to the first tee, after being ill during the week leading up to the GolfRSA flagship event.

“I played in the Gauteng North Open at Copperleaf the week before and struggled through the final 36 holes. The doctor confirmed I had pneumonia and bronchitis. I spent two days on a drip, and the rest of the week recovering,” he explained.

Although Burnand didn’t touch a club for a week, he was determined to play in the opening tournament of the GolfRSA South African Swing, the three biggest tournaments in local amateur men’s golf.

His form leading into the event was a run of eight straight top-10 finishes before the Gauteng North Open, which marked the GolfRSA national squad member as one of the favourites.

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A four-under-par opening round got the GolfRSA number two ranked player into a share of the first-round lead.

“I didn’t touch a club until the practice round. It was quite a surprise to shoot five under on my front nine. I was happy about it; maybe the break did me good,” he said.

Reality kicked in during the second round, however, as Burnand’s six-over-par 76 in strong winds saw him slip back into a share of 22nd and six shots off the pace at the halfway stage of the tournament.

A third-round 69 still left him with plenty to do and he started the final five shots back of co-leaders Dylan Kayne and Ivan Verster. However, with the winds in the afternoon gusting up to 30km per hour, Burnand knew he was in with a chance.

“I set myself a target to get to three under par,” he said.

“I thought that would be competitive in the conditions and felt confident of holding my own in the wind. We had three-hole live scoring, so I was watching what was happening behind me while I was playing.

“Coming to the back nine, I was one under but saw the leaders had slipped back to three under, and thought to myself ‘three under is still a good target’, so I set out to achieve that.”

A birdie on the short par-four 17th saw Burnand edge closer to his target, but a par on the last left him thinking he had let the tournament slip away.

“My game plan the whole week was to lay up on 17, but I felt I needed two birdies on the final two holes to reach my target,” said Burnand.

“I pulled out my driver and went for it. I hit it 15 feet short of the green, chipped it and holed the putt. I made a good par to finish at two under, but I felt I would be one shy. Fortunately, with the help of the wind, I could get it done in one shot.”

“It’s a huge honour to have my name on the trophy,” said Burnand.

“I was talking to Jayden Schaper a few days ago – we are from the same club – and he won the 2019 SA Stroke Play at De Zalze. I told him I wanted to do what he had done.

“To have the SA Stroke Play title behind my name means a lot to me. I waited a long time to get this, and it is a great feeling to achieve it at last.”