Frontrunners emerge at the IPT
The early tournament favourites lived up to their star billing in the second round of the SA Junior Inter-Provincial Golf Tournament, being played at Leopard Park Golf Club on Tuesday.
Western Province shot to the top of the log, while Gauteng North, Central Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal stayed within striking distance.
Province strengthened their bid for the title with two resounding victories, securing a 10-2 triumph over Mpumalanga and surrendering just a half point to Southern Cape.
Team manager Peter Little said the halved match against the Garden Route side in the morning foursomes set the tone for the round.
"We played well on Monday, but we definitely combined better this morning and the result really fired up the guys," said Little.
"We scored a clean sweep against Southern Cape in the singles and had two close losses against Mpumalanga. Every player on the team gave his best and I'm just delighted with their performance so far in the tournament."
Province has a commanding lead on 45 points, but Gauteng North managed to narrow the gap on the frontrunners dramatically.
Northerns beat KwaZulu-Natal 8.5-3.5, defeated Border 9-3 and handed Free State and Northern Cape a 10-2 drubbing to take their tally to 41 points.
After going down to Gauteng North, KwaZulu-Natal pulled out all the stops against Border and Free State and Northern Cape, carving out 7-5 victories against both teams. That lifted the coastal side to third on the log with 32.5 points.
But KwaZulu-Natal is just half a point clear of Central Gauteng, who worked hard to grind out a victory against North West but enjoyed a comfortable 8-4 win over Ekurhuleni.
The North West side dominated the foursomes to lead 2.5 - 1.5, but Central bounced back with a spirited performance in the singles to claim victory on 6.5 - 5.5. Meanwhile, the tournament hosts gained a valuable point, defeating Ekurhuleni on 6.5 - 5.5.
"We analysed our results last year and saw that the foursomes was our achilles heel, so we put an incredible amount of work into the combinations for this year," said North West team manager Johnny van den Berg.
"We are very happy that we have a winning recipe for the foursomes and now we just need everyone to step up in the singles. The team is highly motivated, and with three rounds to play, we could still emerge as the giant killers. Don't write us off just yet."
In other results, the Eastern Cape overturned a disappointing opening round by trouncing both defending champions Boland and Limpopo 8.5-3.5, Mpumalanga held off Southern Cape 6.5-5.5 and Free State and Northern Cape beat Border 8.5-3.5.
SECOND-ROUND SCORES
Western Province 10 vs Mpumalanga 2
Western Province 11.5 vs Southern Cape 0.5
Mpumalanga 6.5 vs Southern Cape 5.5
Central Gauteng 8 vs Ekurhuleni 4
Central Gauteng 6.5 vs North West 5.5
North West 6.5 vs Ekurhuleni 5.5 vs
Eastern Province 8.5 vs Boland 3.5
Eastern Province 8.5 vs Limpopo 3.5
Boland 5.0 vs Limpopo 7.0
Gauteng North 10 vs Free State & Northern Cape 2
Gauteng North 9 vs Border 3
Gauteng North 8.5 vs KwaZulu-Natal 3.5
KwaZulu-Natal 7 vs Free State & Northern Cape 5
KwaZulu-Natal 7 vs Border 5
Free State & Northern Cape 8.5 vs Border 3.5
CURRENT LOG AFTER ROUND TWO
(Position, Union, Played, Won, Draw, Lost, Points, Games)
1 Western Province (5, 5, 0, 0, 10, 45.0)
2 Gauteng North (5, 5, 0, 0, 10, 41.0)
3 KwaZulu-Natal (5, 4, 0, 1, 8, 32.5)
4 Central Gauteng (4, 4, 0, 0, 8, 32.0)
5 Free State & Northern Cape (6, 2, 0, 4, 4, 29.5)
6 Limpopo (5, 2, 0, 3, 4, 27.5)
7 Eastern Province ( 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 26.5)
8 North West (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 23.5)
9 Mpumalanga (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 19.5)
10 Ekurhuleni (5, 1, 0, 4, 2, 27.0)
11 Southern Cape (4, 1, 0, 3, 2, 17.5)
12 Boland (4, 0, 0, 4, 0, 19.5)
13 Border (5, 0, 0, 5, 0, 19.0)