Immelman retains SA Open crown

SOMERSET WEST (South Africa): South Africa’s Trevor Immelman overhauled Denmark’s Anders Hansen with a closing round of five-under-par 67 to retain his South African Open title by three shots on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Immelman, who won last year’s championship in a playoff with Tim Clark at the same venue, began the final day two strokes off the lead but tightened his grip on the tournament with five birdies in the first 10 holes.

Immelman, whose 2003 victory in front of his home crowd was his breakthrough win on the European Tour, could afford to bogey the last after three-putting from 25 feet before finishing at 12-under 276. Hansen, who won the Volvo Masters in 2002 before losing interest in the game, slipped back into a tie for ninth with a final-round 76 after running up a double-bogey seven at the par-five 16th, where he drove out of bounds. British pair Alastair Forsyth and Steve Webster shared second place at nine-under 279, Scot Forsyth firing a 68 and Englishman Webster a 71.

Leading scores:

(South African unless stated):

276 - Trevor Immelman 71 69 69 67

279 - Alastair Forsyth (Britain) 68 69 74 68, Steve Webster (Britain) 66 75 67 71

281 - Darren Fichardt 69 75 67 70

282 - David Carter (Britain) 74 69 71 68, Miles Tunnicliff (Britain) 70 71 72 69, Raphael Jacquelin (France) 68 71 70 73, Marcus Fraser (Australia) 74 71 67 70

283 - Sven Struever (Germany) 70 72 74 67, Titch Moore 71 69 75 68, Stephen Scahill (New Zealand) 67 72 75 69, Nico Van Rensburg 67 70 75 71 Stephen Dodd (Britain) 65 73 72 73, Anders Hansen (Denmark) 70 69 68 76 Brett Rumford (Australia) 64 74 73 72. —Reuters

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