Fuente: © Southern Africa Tour
http://www.sunshinetour.com/

SOUTHERN AFRICA TOUR: Eagleton soars at VOG qualifier at Arabella

/noticias.info/ Looking at his winning score in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour at Arabella, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that Pretoria’s Christo Eagleton was playing a different course to the other 63 qualifiers in the field.

As England’s Robert Wragg remarked: “A 71 today is as good as a 61 any other day.”

By comparison to the bulk of the scores posted, Eagleton ‘scorched’ the par-72 layout at the Arabella Golf Club in one-under-par 71 to win by two shots from Schoemans Park’s Robert Haindl.

The lanky 26-year old seemed oblivious to the unanticipated strong winds of up to 45 km/hour that broke the back of the bulk of the field.

Starting at the 10th hole, the Zwartkops professional collected three birdies to turn in 33, but after adding fourth birdie at the par-5 second, ran out of steam in the rampant South Easterly that battered the players on the homeward stretch.

“I played nicely today, said Eagleton. “I actually missed a few birdies out there from inside 10 feet, so I could have gone, but hopefully my low round will come during the tournament. There are a lot of birdies to be made out there, but the wind is a killer when it blows like today.”

Eagleton, who did not play in the season opening Stanbic Zambia Open, teed it up this morning in his first qualifier since earning his 2006 Tour Card at the March Tour School, but he is no stranger to the pro golf arena.

After two years on the Sunshine Tour (2000 and 2001), Eagleton joined fellow professional Darren Fichardt on the European Tour circuit.

“I caddied for Darren for three years, including his Qatar Masters and Dimension Data Pro-Am wins,” said Eagleton. “We had a deal that I would caddie for two years, then join the Sunshine Tour.

“But somehow I ended up staying another year, so you can imagine that I am very anxious to get things off the ground. I am relieved the qualifier is over and we can get on with business.”

Another pro relieved to have the qualifier behind him is Benoni’s Dion Fourie.

The 2003 Bearingman Highveld Classic winner lost his exemption at the end of the 2004 season and finished the 2005 season in 56th place, just R4,000 short of the top-50 cut-off.

“There’s no doubt that it tough to have to come back and qualify,” said Fourie. “But I didn’t play enough tournaments last year to guarantee my exemption and I will just have to remedy that this season.

“It was a tough day at the office, though. The wind was brutal and, although I am hitting the ball very well, my putter was about as cold as the South Easterly.”

Eagleton and his fellow qualifiers joined the queue for the winning share of an increased purse of R360,000, as well as a shot at the R100,000 cash incentive on offer at the end of the Origins of Golf Tour series. notas_de_prensa_archivo