TWO GOOD FRIENDS AND TRAVEL partners, Kyle Barker and Rupert Ka- minski, were among nine players win- ning their first Sunshine Tour titles in 2023. They included two rook- ies, 22-year-old Robin Williams and 23-year-old Gerhard Pepler, while there was a belated first win for 32-year-old CJ du Plessis. Barker. 25, and Kaminski, 27, won two of the biggest titles outside the co- sanctioned DP World Tour events. Barker’s maiden win came with a record 30-under-par score of 258 at Dainfern in April at the Stella Artois Players Championship. That was at the end of the 2022/23 season, and he followed up in the new season with another triumph in the September Vodacom Origins at Devonvale in the Cape Winelands. NINE FIRST-TIME WINNERS On Sunshine Tour in 2023
Above: Kyle Barker and Rupert Kaminski. Above right: Luca Filippi. Below left: Gerhard Pepler. Below: Robin Williams. Below right: Ryan van Velzen
that support meant for us, giving us the freedom to go out and focus on our golf.” Williams also gained his first win in a 72-hole event, the Fortress Invitational at Glendower, comfortably by six with 19-under 269. The Stellenbosch-born Englishman, who played in the 2018 Junior Ryder Cup match for Europe against the United States, had earned his Sunshine Tour card through winning the Vusi Ngubeni Q School event in April. He has the most birdies on tour this season, with 250. CJ du Plessis entered the winner’s
Kaminski won the PGA Championship the following week in unusual circumstances in challenging weather conditions at St Francis Links. Instead of playing the final two rounds on the weekend, there was a rush to complete 36 holes on Saturday with bad weather looming. A shotgun start at 6.40am further disrupted matters. A 66 in the third round put him on track for victory. “Kyle and I won back-to-back shortly after we had signed our joint new sponsorship to become ambassadors for SunBet,” said Kaminski. “It shows what
96 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online