De Roey chasing SA Women’s Open glory

Stimpmeter · April 27, 2024, 4:30pm

Belgium’s Manon De Roey will take a three-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round of the Investec South African Women’s Open at the Erinvale Country and Golf Estate. MICHAEL VLISMAS reports.

De Roey signed for a 66 on Saturday as she climbed to 14 under par. Her nearest challenger is Morocco’s Ines Laklalech whose 65 carried her to 11 under par.

South Africa’s Nicole Garcia surged through the field with an impressive eight-under-par 64, lifting her to seven under par overall.

De Roey showed tremendous composure on a day of shifting conditions in the wind and where she had to withstand a few runs at her lead

“When I saw the leaderboard on 13 I suddenly realised, ‘OK, people are moving’. So I decided to start moving myself,” she said.

“But I tried to stay patient all day. I created chances for myself and I played solid all day. I thought it was going to be more windy and to be honest I prefer the wind because I can shape the ball more. But I just picked my targets and lines and tried to commit to every shot.”

Her most dominant stretch came on the back nine where she made five birdies in six holes to distance herself from the field.

“I hit it quite close in that stretch of holes. It felt like every putt I looked at I saw the line straight away and felt good about every putt.”

De Roey has had a strong season thus far with several top-10s on the Ladies European Tour and now finds herself chasing one of the most historic titles in South African women’s golf.

“I’m really looking forward to the final round. I’ve been playing quite solid all year. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing the last two days, make some putts and we’ll see what happens.”

As her nearest challenger, Lacklalech kept herself in touch of the lead for most of the round before a double-bogey on 17.

“It was a really nice round,” she said. “That kind of round where everything clicked. You don’t think too much and the putting felt good. I also played with really nice people so had a really nice day.

“But on 17, I was in one of those deep greenside bunkers. It was close to the face so I wasn’t sure if my ball was going to come out and I put too much speed on the shot.

“But I’m feeling great. The game feels good.”

And Garcia has her own target as the leading South African looking for a strong finish on home fairways.

“We’ll see what the weather brings on Sunday. This tournament is so special. It’s one of the oldest women’s tournaments in our country and you have so many big names that have won it before, so to have a chance to join that group of names and leave a legacy is something special.”

Photo: Troy Winfield/Sunshine Tour

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