Dean Burmester wins Tshwane Open

Dean Burmester of South Africa fired a closing round of 65 at Pretoria CC to win the Tshwane Open by three strokes from Jorge Campillo of Spain and Finland’s Mikko Korhonen.

Dean Burmester began the final round of the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club a shot behind the leaders but he moved into a share at the top of the board with a birdie on his opening hole.

The South African made further gains at the second and third holes to move in front on his own and more birdies at the sixth, eight and ninth holes saw him turn in just 29 strokes.

Although he stumbled a little on the run for home, he had more than enough to distance himself from the pack and hold on for his first European Tour win.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I can now say I’m a European Tour winner and that sounds great.”

Jorge Campillo and Mikko Korhonen shared second place after closing rounds of 68 and 67 respectively. American Peter Uihlein took fourth place on his own.

3 Talking points from the Tshwane Open

1 – This was 27-year-old Dean Burmester’s first European Tour win. He had no playing right on the circuit at the start of this year but has proved he has what it takes to win professional golf tournaments – he has six Sunshine Tour victories to his name. He finished top-10 in the BMW SA Open and then secured a seventh place in Abu Dhabi. With this win he should move into the top-100 on the Official World Golf Ranking. “I sharpened my teeth as a youngster on the Big Easy Tour here at home and I think I had five seconds in one year then, two years later, I had four wins on the Sunshine Tour,” he said. “I’ve had an amazing summer.”

2 – Peter Uihlein of the USA continued his good start to the 2017 European Tour season. He followed top-10s in South Africa and Dubai with a fourth place this week; He carded rounds of 65 an 66 on the weekend to move dramatically up the leaderboard. Also enjoying a fine run of form is England’s James Morrison – he was tied sixth this week to follow a tie for fourth in last week’s Joburg Open.

Peter Uihlein swing sequence:

3 – It was a disappointing day for Scotland’s Scott Jamieson. He shared the lead with Alexander Bjork of Sweden coming into the final round but he slumped to a closing 78 and finished the week in a tie for 22nd. The Scot made three double bogeys on Sunday at Pretoria CC.

Tshwane Open Pretoria CC, Waterkloof, South Africa Mar 2-5 Purse: €1,200,000 Par: 71

1    Dean Burmester (RSA)    68    68    65    65    266    €190,055 T2    Jorge Campillo (Esp)    67    69    65    68    269    €110,436 T2    Mikko Korhonen (Fin)    66    69    67    67    269    €110,436 4    Peter Uihlein (USA)    69    70    65    66    270    €58,875 5    Alexander Bjork (Swe)    65    67    68    71    271    €49,522 T6    Jacques Blaauw (RSA)    69    68    70    65    272    €35,773 T6    Paul Dunne (Ire)        73    68    65    66    272    €35,773 T6    James Morrison (Eng)    67    66    70    69    272    €35,773 T9    Ben Eccles (Aus)        66    73    64    71    274    €23,622 T9    Peter Karmis (RSA)    67    67    69    71    274    €23,622 T9    Justin Walters (RSA)    66    68    71    69    274    €23,622

Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage