Sam Horsfield finishes second behind

George Coetzee at Tshwane Open

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Sam Horsfield enhanced his growing reputation on the European Tour as he pushed George Coetzee all the way before finishing second at the Tshwane Open today.
The Englishman came through all three stages at Q-School to win the final stage by a commanding eight shots after firing a closing 63 in Tarragona in November.
He made the semi-finals of the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth in February and completed his best finish at a European Tour stroke play event as he finished two shots behind Coetzee at Pretoria Country Club.
His 64 on Saturday was his best round as a professional and earned him a place in the final group alongside Coetzee - who had a vociferous home support behind him at the course where he is a member.

The hooter sounded for a storm delay as Coetzee and Horsfield walked off the 15th green and the 21 year old returned to finish birdie-birdie-birdie as he continues to find his feet on the big stage.
"It was a great experience being in my first final group," he said."George is a great guy, we got talking a little bit out there. Being in a group with someone who is really nice kind of settled me down a little bit early on and I had a blast out there"This week you've got to hit a lot of wedges into the greens which was nice. I was able to hit a few of those close, especially on 17, that was a good number
"I was trying to make eagle coming up 18 but it is what it is and I had a great time today.Mikko Korhonen finished a shot further back as he continues to search for a first win on Tour but he led by two on the front nine before coming home in level par as Coetzee surged ahead.A bogey on the 17th after the delay realistically ended his chances but he bounced back with a birdie on the last and was pleased with his work in South Africa.

"A good week," he said. "The back nine wasn't really what I was expecting but the front nine was good, I got the lead there and just couldn't get anything going on the back nine.
"After the delay I hit a couple of really bad shots. We've had this before so you kind of know what to expect."
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
par 284 (4x71)
266 George Coetzee (SAfr) 67 64 68 67
268 Sam Horsfield (Eng) 68 69 64 67
269 Mikko Korhonen (Finland) 68 64 69 68

SCOTS' TOTALS
271 Scott Jamieson 67 69 67 68 (7th)
275 Connor Syme 70 68 68 69 (T11)
283 Grant Forrest 70 70 76 67 (T59)
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