Johan Struwig with Danie Viljoen

The Liberty GNGU Mid-Amateur championship was hosted by Silver Lakes Country Club on Sunday 13 March. The course, like the rest of Pretoria was drenched with persistent rainfall over the last two weeks. The green-keeping staff however did an exceptional job in providing not only a championship setup, but also a course that looked the part.

Danie Viljoen (32) made great use of his local knowledge of the course and set the early pace with a one under par first round. He was tied with three other players competing for the title. The Silver Lakes CC member however had some fuel left in the tank and shot a 5 under par 68 in the second round to win the tournament by three shots from Fourie Zietsman (33).

January 1st the SAGA changed the Mid-Amateur qualifying age limit to 30 years of age from 35. The result is that the handicap limit for this Mid-Amateur tournament dropped from a 6 handicap limit to a 4 handicap limit. Even with the 4 handicap limit the tournament was vastly oversubscribed and some 4 handicaps missed the cut after a ballot was taken.

Hendre Scheepers, a Pretoria Golf club member shot two solid rounds of 71 to claim third, whilst the defending champion Josef Fourie made a great run ending on one under par in fourth position. Rounding out the top five and Par or better scores was Steven Williams (55)