On Sunday, Thomas Aiken drained a 45-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole of East London Golf Club to clinch a playoff victory at the Africa Open Golf Challenge and lift his third European Tour trophy.
“I’d say it was the sweetest because it was in South Africa. I’ve been wanting to win one for the South African fans for a while now and I’ve come close many times. It’s so nice to finally get one under the belt here,” he said.
The Africa Open has not been won by a foreigner. Aiken, an eight-time Sunshine Tour winner, was determined to stop England’s Oliver Fisher from beating him in a sudden-death playoff after both players finished regulation play on 20-under-par.
“I was adamant to keep it in South Africa, and thank goodness I managed to do that,” said Aiken. “It’s a tournament with three major champions engraved on the trophy, so it’s a good one to win.”
The 30-year-old from Johannesburg also had his wife Katy on the bag for the first time.
“That was interesting. My regular caddie has had some issues back home and I had a friend on the bag last week. I was contemplating what to do this week and my wife said ‘I’ll carry the bag.’ We got a smaller bag for her and she did a fantastic job, so thank you caddie! She’s not only my best friend, but now she’s one of my best caddies,” he laughed.
Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo led by two shots heading into the final round, but came undone at the first and took three shots to get out of a greenside bunker before eventually walking off with a nine. He recovered his round superbly and birdied his final five holes to finish tied fifth on 18-under-par.
“It’s been a good start to the year, and of course I was looking for a win today, but the first hole pretty much took me away from the tournament. Coming down the stretch I thought that a couple of birdies would get me into the top 10. At the start of the week if I had a top-10 I would have taken it and I finished fifth. Five birdies to finish the last round and the way I was playing, I’ll take it,” he said.
Defending champion Darren Fichardt made a solid move on the front nine, where he made four birdies and an eagle between the third and seventh. He continuously shaved the cup on the back nine but was unable to get his scoring going and joined Jaco van Zyl, Richard Bland and Grillo in a share of fifth.
David Horsey sank a superb 20-footer from the fringe at 17 and then a 15-footer at 18 to finish with two birdies. The Englishman birdied four of his final six holes to set the early clubhouse benchmark at 19-under, but he was eventually overtaken and left to a share of third place.
American John Hahn had a good start with birdies at the first and third, but failed to keep his momentum going and went on to card 69 and join Horsey in a share of third.
SCORES (RSA unless otherwise specified):
264 - Thomas Aiken 66 65 66 67
264 - Oliver Fisher (ENG) 66 63 66 69
265 - David Horsey (ENG) 66 64 70 65, John Hahn (USA) 65 61 71 68
266 - Jaco Van Zyl 69 65 67 65, Darren Fichardt 66 67 67 66, Richard Bland (ENG) 64 69 64 69, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 68 63 62 73
268 - Keith Horne 68 69 66 65, Damien McGrane (IRL) 67 69 67 65, Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN) 64 67 69 68, Ulrich van den Berg 66 68 65 69
269 - Stuart Manley (WAL) 68 69 65 67, Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 69 65 68 67, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 65 66 68 70
270 - JJ Senekal 66 71 69 64, Wade Ormsby(AUS) 70 64 69 67, Jean Hugo 68 66 67 69, Jens Dantorp (SWE) 69 63 68 70
271 - Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 65 72 69 65, Jbe' Kruger 67 69 67 68, Ruan de Smidt 68 66 69 68, Lee Slattery (ENG) 67 68 68 68, Daniel Im (USA) 69 67 66 69,Justin Walters 66 69 67 69, Ricardo Santos (POR) 62 66 73 70
272 - Charl Coetzee 71 66 70 65, James Morrison (ENG) 66 69 72 65, David Drysdale (SCO) 65 70 71 66, Mikko Korhonen (FIN) 72 63 71 66,Matthew Nixon (ENG) 66 70 69 67, Mark Tullo (CHI) 66 71 66 69, Jared Harvey 67 69 66 70
273 - Jamie McLeary (SCO) 69 68 69 67, PH McIntyre 69 67 70 67, Robert Dinwiddie (ENG) 69 68 68 68, Roope Kakko (FIN) 69 67 69 68,Danie van Tonder 70 66 69 68, Rhys Davies (WAL) 64 71 70 68, Mark Williams 67 65 71 70, James Kamte 69 64 70 70, Garth Mulroy 64 68 70 71,Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 67 67 68 71
274 - Brandon Stone 66 71 71 66, Neil Schietekat 69 68 70 67, Simon Wakefield (ENG) 66 67 72 69, Dawie Van der Walt 68 66 70 70,Jose-Filipe Lima (POR) 67 67 69 71
275 - Jorge Campillo (ESP) 70 65 75 65, Sihwan Kim (KOR) 68 68 71 68, Daniel Brooks (ENG) 70 67 69 69, Jacques Blaauw 70 65 71 69,Morten Orum Madsen (DEN) 72 63 68 72
276 - Patrik Sjoland (SWE) 66 65 76 69, Edouard Dubois (FRA) 69 67 71 69, Jaco Ahlers 69 68 69 70, Michael Hoey (NIR) 68 68 70 70, Adam Gee (ENG) 66 65 73 72
277 - Adrien Saddier (FRA) 70 66 76 65
278 - Tjaart van der Walt 67 68 70 73, Oliver Bekker 70 67 66 75
279 - Jason Knutzon (USA) 71 66 72 70, Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 68 69 71 71, Sam Walker (ENG) 67 70 70 72, Victor Riu (FRA) 66 67 71 75
282 - Heinrich Bruiners 66 71 75 70
287 - Chris Doak (SCO) 69 67 67 84
pic Katy and Thomas Aiken celebrate victory
