CAPE TOWN (21 May 2015) – The South African Golf Association’s Junior Team and Western Province are deadlocked heading into the final round of the Challenge Cup Teams Tournament after a thrilling fourth round at Milnerton Golf Club on Thursday.

The SAGA Juniors beat the South African Universities side (USSA) 7.5 – 4.5, while Western Province pulled another rabbit out of the hat to score a narrowly 6.5 – 5.5 victory over a feisty Presidents Team.

The victories left the two sides tied at six points, but the SAGA Juniors will have a huge advantage heading into the final round.

The young guns have 30.5 game points in hand and will be looking to capitalize on a 6.5 lead over the host union in their final encounter against defending champions Central Gauteng.

Meanwhile Gauteng North, USSA and Central Gauteng are tied with four points each, but Gauteng North has half a games point advantage over USSA after hammering Central Gauteng 9 – 3 in round four.
Western Province will go up against USSA in their final match, while Gauteng North will aim to carry their great

run of form to another comprehensive showing against the Presidents Team.

Gauteng North made the best of the favourable scoring conditions to take a 3-1 lead in the Foursomes against Central Gauteng.
Juan-Pierre Cooper, Robert Gouws, Ruan Korb, Ruan Conradie and Rosswell Sinclair reeled in the points in the Singles, while Adriel Poonan and skipper Jacques van Tonder drove home a well-deserved victory with halves against Neal Herman and Werner van Wyk respectively.

The SAGA Juniors won three games in the Foursomes and Julien Sale, Caylum Boon, Herman Loubser and Cameron Moralee boosted their tally to seven points.
KwaZulu-Natal’s Luke Mayo squared his game against Reinhardt Blaauw for a half point.

Province led 2.5 – 1.5 against the Presidents Team going into the Singles, but the home heroes had to pull out all the stops to come up trumps in the Singles.
Neswill Croy, Franklin Manchest, Matthew Kiewitz and Sentanio Minnie scored early victories to give the Presidents Team a three point lead. However, Brent Kirstein stemmed the bleeding when he defeated Anuerin Gounden 1-up and Carlo O’Reilly, Luca Filippi and Sean Bradley won the last three matches to secure two crucial points for Province.

FOURTH ROUND LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 SAGA Juniors (4, 3, 0, 1, 6, 30.5)
2 Western Province (4, 3, 0, 1, 6, 23.0)
3 Gauteng North (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 25.5)
4 USSA (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 25.0)
5 Central Gauteng (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 23.0)
6 Presidents Team (4, 0, 0, 4, 0, 17.0)

PHOTO – JP Cooper; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA