Jaco van Zyl wins Telkom Championship

Jaco van Zyl got up and down from a bed of roses on the 18th hole to win the Telkom PGA Championship to give him his maiden summer victory on the Sunshine Tour.

The 29-year-old’s six-under 66 took him to an 18-under victory, at the Woodmead course of Country Club Johannesburg.

The South-African chipped from the flowerbed landing 15-feet from the hole to roll in the putt on the 18th.

He said: “I knelt down and saw there was a V-shape in the hedge in front of me. But I would have to keep the ball low, I thought, or it would get caught in a rose bush,” he said after the win.

Canada‘s Graham DeLaet had taken the clubhouse at 17-under-par after his final round of 64.

Also Trevor Fisher Jnr also finished at 17-under after he opened with six birdies in his first nine holes, before finishing with a seven-under 65.

Both were ready for a three-way playoff, but Van Zyl crushed their hopes with the final putt, who has not won since the 2005 Platinum Classic and last year‘s Vodacom Origins of Golf Final.

He added: “I practise those 15-footers all the time.

“Ernie Els said he practised them to win majors; I practised them to win the Telkom PGA.”

Zyl will play the rest of the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, before heading to Europe to try his hand at the European Tour Q-School.

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