JOHANNESBURG (12 January 2015) – Keegan de Lange and JP Cooper will make their debut for South Africa in two-day Test against a French Team Links this month.
The Gauteng North juniors have been named alongside Herman Loubser from Boland, Marco Steyn and Dylan Naidoo from Central Gauteng and Southern Cape’s Jovan Rebula to fly the flag for South Africa at St Francis 27 to 28 January.
The inaugural Test last year pitted four-man teams from France and South Africa against each other at Serengeti Golf & Wildlife Estate.
Following the Test, the French requested that the teams be increased to six players and the South African Golf Association was only too happy to comply.
“Naturally, we were absolutely delighted to meet their request, because this offers us the chance to give six of our top juniors an opportunity to gain experience against top international amateurs at a top golf course,” said SAGA Golf Integration Manager Eden Thompson.
Pretoria Country Club’s De Lange, a Nomads National Order of Merit winner in 2013, had two close calls in 2014 and tied for second in the season-finale Joburg Junior Open.
He converted the runner up finishes with a three-shot victory in the season-opening Dr Bam Nomads National Order of Merit at Pollak Park Golf Club earlier this month.
Fellow Pretoria golfer Cooper has quietly worked his way to the number six spot in the Junior Amateur rankings over the past year.
The 17-year-old Wingate Park player finished second to Rebula at Royal Durban and kept his ascendancy on track with a tie for sixth in the Nomads SA Boys U-19 Stroke Play Championship.
He also downed fellow Gauteng North golfers Rosswell Sinclair and De Lange to reach the Match Play semi-finals.
Cooper took fifth in the Nomads SA Boys U-17 Championship and had top 15 finishes in the North and South Championship and the Nomads Order of Merit Inland tournament at Silver Lakes.
Cooper was a member of the Gauteng North Challenge Cup team and the SA U-19 Inter-Provincial squad. In early October, he represented South Africa in the Boys U-14-17 category alongside Loubser in the Minsheng Beijing Junior Open at the Tian’ An Golf Club in Beijing, China where Loubser tied for eighth and Cooper claimed a share of 12th.
Gauteng North’s Junior Player of the Year Rosswell Sinclair has been named the non-travelling reserve.
PHOTO: Gauteng North’s JP Cooper will represent South Africa in a two-day Test against at St Francis Links at the end of January; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA