Haydn Porteous was the only South African to finish in red numbers for the day on Sunday to end as the top-performing Saffa at the NBO Oman Open.
Porteous fired a final round 70 to finish at -4 for the tournament at Al Mouj.
The 2017 D+D Real Czech Masters winner moved past Richard Sterne on Sunday with none of the four remaining South Africans able to make a real move due to the consistent dropped shots. Porteous birdied the 2nd hole for the third day running but immediately gave a shot back on the par-five that followed – not quite as bad as his triple bogey in the second round.
The 23-year-old got another shot back with a four on the 7th and moved to -2 for the day with a birdie to start his inward nine. A bogey on the 12th summed up his up-and-down week before his fourth and final birdie of the day at the 16th to end with a Sunday 70.
Porteous’ effort was three better than Sterne, who dropped two shots in his final four holes to finish with a 73 and drop to -2 and a share of 37th place. One shot further back was Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who was -4 through 21 holes but slid back every day.
Bezuidenhout made his first gain at the 7th but turned level after a bogey at the 9th before finishing with nine straight pars to end the Muscat event at level par.
It was a final round to forget for Zander Lombard, who was slow out of the blocks. He tripled the 1st and made a double on the 4th, and dropped to six over with another drop on the 5th.
Lombard got some respectability back with three birdies in a row from the 6th, but closed the nine with another drop for a 40. The birdies had dried up completely and he made two more drops to finish with a 78 – three worse than yesterday’s round.
At the time of writing, Chris Wood and Joost Luiten were at the top of the pile on -14 with seven holes to play.
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
