Pretoria’s Joshua Koekemoer, a sophomore at Augusta University, produced a dominant performance to win the Central Gauteng Amateur Open by a massive nine-shot margin at Royal Johannesburg. The tournament saw 154 players participate, with 65 players making the 36-hole cut.
Koekemoer fired superb rounds of 66-66-65 for a 19-under total of 197, pulling clear of a strong field and underlining his status as one of South Africa’s most in-form amateurs.
Devon Valentine of Vereeniging and Keegan Du Plessis of Gqeberha shared second place at 10-under 206. Valentine carded rounds of 71-67-68, while Du Plessis returned 67-67-72 after starting the final round as Joshua’s closest challenger.
Koekemoer began the final day at 12-under, holding a two-shot lead over Du Plessis at 10-under. Any hopes of a tight finish quickly disappeared as Joshua put together another low round — a 7-under 65 — with his only blemishes coming as bogeys on the par-three second and 12th. Du Plessis could only manage an even-par 72, and Valentine’s 4-under 68, the joint-low round of the day, earned him a share of second.
Defending champion Ivan Verster matched Valentine’s 68 to finish fourth at 8-under 208 after earlier rounds of 71 and 69.
This is Koekemoer’s second ranked win of the season, adding to his Mpumalanga Open Championship victory in August, where he won by three strokes. In seven ranked starts this season, he now has two wins and two further top-10 finishes — fourth at the Ekurhuleni Open Championship and tied-10th at the BETWAY Big Easy Blu Label Unlimited Invitational — signalling a player very much on the rise.