Golf sensation, teenager buttons a 61 on Oubaai Golf Club
17-year-old teenager, Brandon Stone marveled the entire field with his superb performance in the pro-am of the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf Final that took place at the Oubaai Golf Club, in Cape Town, South Africa.
The amateur could not help getting amused by the Ernie Els’ course design when he shot a magnificent 61 on the challenging par-72 layout. According to the player, that was his favourite round, although earlier he had a chance of mapping out a 10-under par
62 on the Gardener Ross Golf Course, which was a longer course in context of yardage.
Stone set a course record there, which he shares with the Sunshine Tour veteran Jean Hugo.
Speaking to the press, regarding his spectacular performance Brandon Stone said, “The last thing I thought I was going to do was shoot a 61 today. If you told me that I was going to shoot 61 at the beginning of the day, I would have laughed at you. So at
the end of the day I’ll take it, as anyone else would”.
Stone chose the back nine of the course as his teeing ground. That went in his favour and right in the start the amateur aced the 10th hole after finding the fairway. Rest of the eight holes ended with a score of 29, which he made with the collection
of six birdies. On his way to the front nine, Stone reeled off four more holes and settled with an aggregate of 11-under par.
Commenting on his score, Stone said that although, he was very happy with his game, he wanted to post a score of 59, which was considered as a magic number in golf. He had all his intentions in its favour, but his shot pitched short of length and missed
an eagle.
Son of professional golfer, Kevin Stone, said, “I got out to the last hole on 12-under and I said to myself, Okay Brandon, whatever you do, you are not going to leave any chance of a 59 short, I hit a great second shot to 40 feet short of the green and unfortunately
left the pitch a little short and rushed the putt by a little bit and walked off with a 61”.
Brandon Stone served as a caddie for his father in the 2009 South African Open Championship. With a gap of few months he seized two victories in the South African Amateur circuit. Moreover, he was ranked eighth in the official SAGA rankings.
With a score of 10-under and 11-under on two of the toughest layouts in South Africa, it won’t be long before the player gets his name listed on the Sunshine Tour. Stone is the first player in a century to record a hole-in-one on the par-four 17th at Pretoria
Country Club. Therefore, in very little time he will be able to match his father’s record of 10 titles.
Despite an excellent finish, Stone was very nervous on the course as it was his very first time playing with professional players. He said, “I'm glad I'm not a professional because I'm still too nervous to play alongside these guys. Darren shot 66 and I
was off the club tees while he was playing off the pro tees further back. So that was just as amazing to watch".
He might be nervous, but his game wasn’t and this was the reason he amazed the rest of the professional players on the field. In fact, Darren Fichardt praised his performance in front of the media and said that Stone had an unbelievable game, which made
the course look silly.
Brandon Stone is certainly the new shining star in golf. The young golfer managed to conquer two of the toughest courses in South Africa with ease. The time is not far, when his name will be listed amongst the top golfers of the World. After all, someone
is required to replace Tiger Woods.
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