Not a black day for Tipping as he gets maiden pro win at SAA Pro-Am Invitational
 Ryan Tipping wore black in each of the club championships he won at the 7,014-metre par 72 Randpark Golf Club, and black did the trick for him again as he won the 54-hole SAA Pro-Am Invitational on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff.
He defeated Chris Swanepoel on their third trip of the day up the 18th, after he got himself into the playoff in the first place with a superb eagle-three on the 492-metre hole.
“I told my caddie as I teed off for the 18th that I’d had dozens of eagles on this hole, so I was going to get another one,” he said. And he did, to the raucous cheers of the members.
He and Swanepoel each got nervy pars on the first playoff hole, and had to do it all over again.
When Swanepoel pushed his tee shot right into a fairway bunker, it was advantage Tipping. And even more so when Swanepoel pulled his approach to the right of the green with the flag placed on a slope away from him.
“I wasn’t nervous yet,” said Tipping, “although I had got a few shakes when I stood over that eagle putt in regulation play.”
But he must have got nervous when Swanepoel played a superb chip to within 10 feet, and he stood over his own 25-footer for eagle. He did indeed stab at it nervously, and left himself a little one-footer for birdie.
Swanepoel missed, and Tipping didn’t.
“I don’t know how guys putt for majors,” laughed Tipping as he waited for the prizegiving, showing friends how his hands were still shaking.
He needed to overcome difficulties on 16 and 17 too, in order to make the playoff, where he missed the green to the right and was behind a tree and made bogey five. Then on 17, he pulled his tee shot into the back bunker and got up and down for par.
“It’s like a story to win in my home course,” he said. “I never thought I’d get my first pro win here, and it’s unbelievable.”
Spare a thought for Swanepoel, who didn’t drop a shot in regulation play during the final round, carding six birdies and an eagle on his way to an eight-under 64. He finished an hour before Tipping, and then had to try and lift himself.
The pair was a single stroke ahead of Jbe’ Kruger, who also finished fast with his third-round 65, and he shared third with Brandon Pieters and Tyrone Mordt.
Merrick Bremner, Alex Haindl and Jaco van Zyl shared sixth, a further shot back.
by Michael Green
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