Liam Grehan posted back-to-back rounds of 70 to finish tied for 40th in the Sunshine Tour’s Stella Artois Players Championship at Randpark Golf Club in Johannesburg, and it was a welcome paycheck and Order of Merit point-earning week for the K Club man after a rough stretch.
With severe weather expected on Sunday, tournament organisers made the choice to play rounds three and four in a marathon Saturday, and Grehan, who’d made the cut on the number, played both rounds from the final group going off the 10th tee.
Three birdies and two bogeys in each of the closing two rounds saw him climb into a share of 40th, and he climbs back inside the top 100 in the Order of Merit on his maiden Sunshine Tour campaign.
At the top of the leaderboard, JC Ritchie continued his rich vein of form by staging a come-from-behind win by two shots on 17-under-par.
Ritchie was three back when play began on the lengthy final day, but finished the third round tied for the lead with Bryce Easton on -15 following his round of 65 and Easton’s incredible 63.
And then Ritchie added a final round of 69 to claim victory in what has been an incredible season for him. He won three times on the HotelPlanner Tour this season on his way to taking the overall Road to Mallorca rankings.
But this win was especially sweet as it was his first on home fairways since 2022.
“It’s been a while, especially back home. I’ve been winning elsewhere, so it’s really good to be taking a trophy home again,” he said.
“It was really tough because 36 holes for us is unlikely as we don’t normally do that. I had to do a lot of mental preparation yesterday – plenty of food and fluids and just try and stay calm with the rain and bad weather. The second 18 was really brutal – it was tougher than what most people think.”
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