Coetzee Earns Hometown Win


George Coetzee closed with a five-birdie 65 to win the Tshwane Open on Sunday. The European Tour event was held at the par-70 Pretoria Golf Club in South Africa.

Coetzee entered the final round among six players - the others were England's David Horsey, Spain's Adrian Otaegui, Scotland's Craig Lee, and South Africans - Trevor Fisher Jr., and Wallie Coetsee - tied for the 54-hole lead.

But the 28-year-old Pretoria native broke the logjam with his flawless final round, finishing 72 holes at 14-under 266, a shot ahead of fellow South African Jacques Blaauw, who fired a 9-under 61 to rise into solo second.

Coetzee was thrilled with his clutch performance on home turf. "To win at your own club in front of all your friends and family - the crowds were amazing I could just feel the momentum building and the crowd getting bigger and bigger towards the end - it's a great experience and a very special day for me," he told the European Tour's website win.

"I think I've got this course down after 18 years of playing golf! I think it played to my advantage knowing when to be aggressive and when not to.

"I threw one club championship away here by playing conservative on 17, so today it was quite an easy decision to hit driver!," added Coetzee, whose first victory also came on home soil at last year's Joburg Open.

Dean Burmester finished tied for third with fellow South African Tjaart van der Walt as each posted 67s, and Lee (70). Sharing sixth were South African Jaco Ahlers (66) and Otaegui (71), while tied for eighth at 273 were France's Gregory Bourdy and England's Robert Rock.

Horsey shot a 73 to end up T-10 at 274, while Fisher had a 75 and Coetsee a 76 to fall down the leaderboard.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015018/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y.