Ian Snyman had to settle for a share of 11th place this week in the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour’s Road to the Sunshine Tour #11 at Pecanwood Golf and Country Club, but he remains in a good position on that circuit’s points table.
He’s played just four of the 11 tournaments in the 18-tournament series ahead of the three-stage play-offs at State Mines on November 15, Wingate Park on November 22, and at Centurion Country Club on November 29, and is in fifth position in the race to get the six Sunshine Tour cards on offer for the top six players when all is done and dusted.
And, as much as anything, it’s Snyman’s putting which is keeping him in good shape. He lies 12th of the list of players with the best putting figures per round amongst players with 10 rounds or more behind them. He’s made 28.80 putts per round, with his best performances coming, naturally, in the tow tournaments he has won at ERPM last November and at Krugersdorp in March. He also topped the list at Wingate Park back in April when his first round had just 22 putts during a brilliant 62.
He takes 1.72 putts per green hit in regulation over the 385 greens he has hit in regulation this season, which also shows that he is accurate ahead of having to start putting.
Newly-minted pro Ryan van Velzen still heads up the Road to the Sunshine Tour rankings. The Benoni Country Club member has 34,655 points from seven tournaments to the 33,256 of Erhardt Lamprechts, who has played nine.
Vaughn van Deventer and Kyle McClatchie are in third and fourth behind the top two, with McClatchie just under 1,000 points ahead of Snyman in fifth. Therion Nel is in sixth, and Gregory Mckay and Dylan Kok knocking on the door of the top six as the series starts hurtling towards its conclusion.
The next tournament in the series, #12, gets underway on Monday at Modderfontein Golf Club.
