One should not count their chickens before they are hatched, especially in golf. Any day, in one of the four rounds or even at a specific moment during a round, a collapse can ruin all the work of the previous days. Thriston Lawrence was riding through the Houghton GC in Johannesburg with the confidence of John Wayne in the first three rounds, but his vision blurred in the last one, when he was looking for his fifth victory in the DP World Tour and the second in the Joburg Open, where he celebrated his first milestone in the European Circuit two years ago.
Dean Burmester (-18), one of the members of the Stingers from LIV Golf, took advantage of Lawrence’s total mess to score his third victory in the European Circuit and, incidentally, secure a spot for the next edition of the British Open at Royal Troon, where Darren Fichardt (-15), second in this event, and Dan Bradbury (-13), third and who made a great defence of the title won a year ago in this event, will also be.
Burmester was the day and Lawrence the night. The 34-year-old golfer born in Zimbabwe, where his father defended the colours of his country as an important cricket player, started the Sunday round calmly with several pars, while his main opponent, who started with a three-stroke lead, was falling apart right from the start. A double bogey and two more bogeys sealed Lawrence in the first five flags to the astonishment of his rival, who precisely started his immaculate card of six birdies without any blemish on the fifth hole.
The drive 🚀
The chip 👌
Textbook birdie for Dean Burmester at 13.#JoburgOpen pic.twitter.com/qQCqihakYa
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 26, 2023
In three holes, the two members of the star match were already tied and, what’s more, Fichardt had caught up with them. Lawrence did not recover despite a couple of stealthy birdies while Burmester was shoring up his cushion in the second nine flags to leave his opponent breathless, who finished in a poor seventh position (with five more on the day), surpassed by the winner, by Fichardt, by Bradbury, by Kruyswijk, by Lombard and even by young Rama, all South Africans except Englishman Bradbury.
Manu Elvira (-8) was just outside the top ten. Twelfth, the performance of the Cantabrian in his first tournament of the DP World Tour with the full card can only be rated as high. The Spaniard signed two birdies in the first third of the course and everything pointed to his result being similar to Friday’s, when he finished with six under par. He slipped on the 7th but quickly recovered on the 8th to go through the second nine holes with a bunch of pars except for the birdie he made on the 14th. He finished the day with three under and a total of -8, a great haul to start accumulating points from minute one, just as we saw at the beginning of last year on the Challenge Tour.
Adri Arnaus (-3) went from more to less in the final round, with four birdies and a bogey in 10 holes before stumbling on the 11th and making a double mistake on the 15th. He was 32nd, while Lucas Vacarisas (+2) closed the tournament playing under par (-1) in 61st place after a round with five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey.
Next week there will be a double date again on the DP World Tour, with the ISPS Handa Australian Open in Sydney and the Investec South African Open in Johannesburg.
