Grace Wins Joburg Open

Though he closed with an even-par 72, South Africa's Branden Grace score was good enought to squeak past England's Jamie Elson and win the Joburn Open. The European Tour event took place on Grace's home turf at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.

After a birdie and a bogey on the front nine, Grace managed all pars on the inward half in the final round of the tournament, which endured several weather delays that suspended rounds and forced the field to play catch-up.

The event concluded on time Sunday, with Elson enduring a long 160-minute wait to find out the outcome. Trailing Grace by 10 strokes, Elson fired a 9-under 63 to make things interesting.

But the 23-year-old Grace held steady and never relinquished the lead, finishing 72 holes in 17-under 270. Elson ended up a stroke back.

"This is a dream come true, it's nice to win in front of my home crowd, I wouldn't change it for anything else," Grace said later.

There was a six-way tie at 273 for third involving South Africans Michiel Bothma (final-round 71), Trevor Fisher (68), Dawie van der Walt (70) and Jacob van Zyl (68), and Scots David Drysdale (67) and Marc Warren (68)

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012002/leaderboard/index.html.

Tweet