Golf Update: Charl Schwartzel defends his title at the Joburg Open
South African golfer Charl Schwartzel carded a four under par 67 in the Joburg Open winning it for the second time in a row. Schwartzel started the final round tied with Thomas Aiken and Garth Mulroy for lead but defeated his compatriots by four shots. Charl
attained his goal of defending his title, by finishing at nineteen under. This was the 26 year olds sixth European Tour title.
Mulroy finished at second place at fifteen under where as Aiken was at third place with fourteen under. English player, Jamie Elson, came in fourth place at the Joburg Open and was the highest ranked Briton after posting a 13 under.
Charl was leading since the second round and showed amazing performance in all but the final round. On Friday, Schwartzel even carded a charismatic 61. Despite everything, the player did play well enough to secure victory on his tome town event.
Aiken was very close to being in second place but a late bogey slipped the player down to third place. Thomas finished at one over par whereas Mulroy posted an even par on Sunday. Both the players, even though they played good, couldn’t match Charl’s consistency.
Neither rain nor wind stopped Schwartzel from making the right shots at the East Course of the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.
Last year, Charl had won by six strokes and had almost the same margin this time around. The €1.3-million event is communally sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour and the European Tour. Charl started the final round well as he posted two birdies on his first
two holes. It was the bogey on the ninth hole that made things really tense. The player said that it wasn’t a good bogey for him, and by the look on Charl’s face, it certainly wasn’t. Charl didn’t do that well in the back nine and he even accepted it.
“Garth and Thomas probably outplayed me on the back nine," Schwartzel conceded,
"but I managed to get a few more putts in the hole."
Making pars and playing carefully in the rest of the tournament really aided the player. It could have also been the fact that both Garth and Thomas dropped shots on the eleventh hole.
Over all, World number 32 gave a good performance in the event and started 2011 on a good note. Hopefully this win will further hoist Charl’ confidence and make him to achieve much more in the year.
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