Jaco Van Zyl wins Nashua Challenge by five shots

FROM THE SUNSHINE TOUR WEBSITE
Jaco van Zyl pulled comfortably clear of the field with a three-under-par 69 today to take the Nashua Golf Challenge at Gary Player Country Club by a five-stroke margin with an eight-under-par total of 208.
He was challenged briefly when he made bogey 5 on the sixth, but he made birdie on eight, and then two more coming in – on 15 and 18 – to have daylight between himself and Jean Hugo and qualifier P H McIntyre who shared second place on 213.
It has been a remarkably consistent 2010 for Van Zyl, who recorded his eighth finish inside the top 15 in his 10th start of the year, and his second title after the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf event at Sishen on April 10.
The win vaulted him to sixth on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit with R805,000 behind runaway leader Charl Schwartzel and has put him well on the road to bettering his 2009 season where he finished fourth.
It was a tough week on the Gary Player Country Club, and Van Zyl was able to weather what it threw at him better than the rest.
“You’ve got to be really patient around here and take what you can when you can,” he said. “And when the course doesn’t give you anything, you’ve got to keep the mistakes to a bare minimum.”
He made seven bogeys throughout the whole tournament, and – critically – just one in his final round.
McIntyre, who only got into the tournament by coming in the top 10 in the pre-qualifying round, moved into a share of the lead with Van Zyl on the 195-metre par-three 13th.
But he squandered the chance of pushing on for what could have been a maiden victory when he lost his tee shot on 14 and finished the hole with a treble-bogey 7.
He compounded his woes with a bogey on 15, but finished with a flourish when he nearly holed his third at the 18th for eagle. He tapped in for birdie and a final round of 71.
After McIntyre made that treble-bogey, Van Zyl responded with a 35-footer for birdie on 15 to effectively shut the door on any possible challenge.
Hugo was also in contention down the stretch, but, after he too birdied 13, he was unable to pick up another shot and, in fact, dropped one on the tough 17th.
With only six of the 40 players who made the cut finishing under par, the course was clearly in challenging shape: “It makes it nice and challenging,” said Van Zyl. “It’s not the same monotonous week-in and week-out sort of golf.”
He came close to winning last week in Swaziland, where he said he relished putting himself in position to win every week, but he’s keen to convert that form into a win in one of the Sunshine Tour’s big summer events.
“I always seem to peak at this time of the year which is a little bit too early or too late,” he said. “I may just shuffle the schedule around a bit towards the end of the year and see what happens then.”
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72)
Money in South African Rand
208 Jaco Van Zyl (RSA) 68 71 69 (79,250).
213 PH McIntyre (RSA) 72 70 71, Jean Hugo (RSA) 73 69 71 (48,750 each).
214 James Kamte (RSA) 74 69 71, Adilson da Silva (BRA) 70 72 72 (27,500 each).
215 Keenan Davidse (RSA) 74 69 72 (19,000).
216 Jake Roos (RSA) 73 73 70, Mark Murless (RSA) 70 75 71, Prinavin Nelson (RSA) 70 71 75 (13,916 each).
217 Darren Fichardt (RSA) 75 71 71, Ulrich van den Berg (RSA) 75 71 71, Andrew Curlewis (RSA) 69 76 72, Christiaan Basson (RSA) 72 73 72, Derik Ferreira (RSA) 76 72 69, Oliver Bekker (RSA) 74 75 68, Chris Swanepoel (RSA) 72 70 75 (9,564.28 each).
218 Justin Walters (RSA) 73 73 72, Andre Cruse (RSA) 73 72 73, Grant Veenstra (RSA) 71 77 70, Albert Pistorius (RSA) 74 69 75 (7,362.50 each).