The 19-year-old stunned with seven birdies on the back nine in the first round to lead England’s Jamie Bower by six strokes with his first 65.
He had to share pole position with Bower, Scotland’s Jamie Savage and fellow South Africans Kyle McClatchie and Jason Rossiter after a second round 73, but a flawless performance for 65 in the third round pushed Venter clear of the chasing pack.
The Centurion player was three strokes ahead of Bower, who recently won the Gauteng North Open, at the start of the final round, while Savage and Rossiter lurked five off the pace and Scottish pair Jack McDonald and Craig Ross a further stroke back.
Venter triumphed on 16-under-par 274 and the fact that he limped home with a hat-trick of bogeys at the closing holes barely diminished his delight at the international breakthrough.
“To win by such a large margin is a really great feeling,” he said. “I expected the guys behind me to charge and I was ready to fight for the win.”
Venter birdied two but lost the early advantage when he couldn’t up-and-down for par at the third. He exchanged another birdie at six for a bogey at eight, but then the putts started dropping.
“I birdied 10, 11 13 and 15 and I had a six shot cushion after 15,” he said. “I got a little greedy because I wanted to post a low score, and I played the last three holes too aggressively.”
Venter bogeyed 16 after a visit to the hazard, flew his second over the green at 17 and couldn’t up-and-down for par. At 18 he tried to take on the flag, but his effort died a watery death.
“I had 214 yards to the flag and I mailed a four iron, but I found the water. It didn’t matter since I had a lot of shots in hand, but it would have been nice to finish with par, at least.
“If I had a do-over, I would definitely play differently, but that’s how you learn.”
The 2014 Eastern Province Stroke Play champion was over the moon with his international coup.
“This is a huge win for me,” he said. “There were international champions and the top golfers from more than 10 countries in the field this week and to beat them is a huge deal for me.
“I saw that you could hit a lot of wedges or short irons into the par fours on the back nine, and that was my game plan. I really want to thank SAGA and GolfRSA for giving us this tournament and the chance to compete against top class international players.
“We are really grateful to Mr Rupert for his huge contribution to the National Squad and for opening up Leopard Creek to us. It was an unbelievable experience to play in a field of this calibre at a championship course like Leopard Creek.”
Venter was also very proud to continue a strong run for HPC Golf Academy that started with Brandon Stone in the BMW SA Open.
“I competed with Zander Lombard and to watch him chase Haydn (Porteous) at the Joburg Open was really inspirational,” Venter said.
“Then Marco (Steyn) won the Leopard Trophy and the Free State Open, Dylan (Naidoo) won Dr Bam and Jason (Smith) finished second in the SA Stroke Play. Louis de Jager won on the IGT Tour and even Melissa (Eaton) did great at the Cape Town Ladies Open on Friday.
“We all train together, so when you see all these guys perform it encourages you to try harder. I’m really proud that I’ve joined that list and hopefully I’m going to inspire some guys to step it up.”
Meanwhile Scotland swept to victory in the African Amateur Team Competition on Friday.
McDonald anchored the side with a sweet 66, Connor Syme added 70 and Grant Forrest 71 for a superb final round 207 to defeat RSA Seniors and France by eight strokes on 639.
Herewith the final result from the inaugural African Amateur Stroke Play Championship, played at the par-72 Leopard Creek Golf Estate near Malelane on Saturday, 13 February 2016; all competitors RSA unless otherwise specified:
274 Albert Venter 65 73 65 71
279 Jamie Savage SCO 71 67 70 71
281 Jack McDonald SCO 73 70 66 72; Craig Ross SCO 66 73 70 72; Jamie Bower ENG 66 72 68 75
282 Rosswell Sinclair 73 66 73 70
285 Connor Syme SCO 73 70 70 72; Kyle McClatchie 71 67 74 73
286 Grant Forrest SCO 77 69 71 69; Yashab Chandra IND 73 74 66 73; Ugo Coussaud FRA 73 73 68 72
287 Calum Fyfe SCO 75 70 70 72; Jason Rossiter 69 69 70 79; Herman Loubser 67 73 73 74
288 Andrew van der Knaap 68 73 71 76
289 Sandy Scott SCO 76 70 71 72
290 Robin Roussel FRA 75 70 68 77
291 Samarth Dwivedi IND 77 69 72 73; Dylan Naidoo 72 72 75 72; Philip Geerts ITA 72 72 71 76
292 Michael Harradine SUI 80 67 71 74; Andre Nel 74 73 73 72
293 James du Preez 79 70 66 78; Kieran Vincent ZIM 74 70 69 80
294 Loris Schuepbach SUI 73 74 75 72; Jovan Rebula 72 77 74 71; Ludovic Bax 72 69 78 75; Sean Bradley 71 79 71 73; Kyle Barker 71 73 71 79; Paul Boshoff 68 78 72 76
295 Victor Veyret FRA 74 76 72 73; Angus Ellis-Cole 74 72 73 76; Luca Filippi 73 74 72 76
296 David Mcintyre 74 75 72 75; Philip Kruse 74 75 71 76; Theunie Bezuidenhout 73 74 74 75
297 Aman Raj IND 77 74 72 74; Dylan Mostert 77 72 72 76; Neswill Croy 77 69 72 79
298 Bob MacIntyre SCO 77 72 78 71; Siyanda Mwandla 73 71 78 76
299 Marco Steyn 78 78 69 74; Garrick Higgo 74 70 74 81; Michele Cea ITA 72 72 76 79; Andre van Heerden 71 77 75 76
300 Scott Gibson SCO 86 73 69 72; Neal Woernhard SUI 76 73 72 79; Alfie Plant ENG 75 81 71 73; Jason Smith 74 75 79 72; Aubrey Beckley 72 75 74 79
301 Cameron Moralee 79 79 73 70; David Meyers 77 71 72 81
302 Robert Foley SUI 76 72 74 80
304 Ruan Conradie 79 79 71 75; David Amm ZIM 72 75 77 80
305 Tristen Strydom 77 77 70 81; Ian Espitalier Noel MRI 74 76 75 80; Fezekile Kana 73 73 76 83
306 Veer Ahlawat IND 82 72 76 76; Charles Almeida FRA 79 75 73 79; Niel du Preez 78 80 73 75; Matthew Kiewitz 74 78 73 81
307 Anuerin Gounden 79 76 76 76; Tom Watson 75 80 73 79
308 Carlo O’Reilly 77 79 73 79; Zabastian de Jager 77 76 77 78
314 Anthoine Auboin FRA 80 74 77 83
Finatl result - Team competition
639 Team Scotland 223 Jack McDonald 73 Connor Syme 73 Bob MacIntyre 77; 209 Grant Forrest 69 Jack McDonald 70 Connor Syme 70; 207 Jack McDonald 66 Connor Syme 70 Grant Forrest 71
647 Team RSA 222 Herman Loubser 67 Tristen Strydom 77 Marco Steyn 78; 220 James du Preez 70 Herman Loubser 73 Tristen Strydom 77; 205 James du Preez 66 Marco Steyn 69 Tristen Strydom 70
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647 Team France 222 Ugo Coussaud 73 Victor Veyret 74 Robin Roussel 75; 217 Robin Roussel 70 Ugo Coussaud 73 Anthoine Auboin 74; 208 Ugo Coussaud 68 Robin Roussel 68 Victor Veyret 72
650 Team (Jnr) RSA 218 Dylan Naidoo 72 Rosswell Sinclair 73 Luca Filippi 73; 212 Rosswell Sinclair 66 Dylan Naidoo 72 Luca Filippi 74; 220 Luca Filippi 72 Rosswell Sinclair 73 Dylan Naidoo 75
652 Team India 227 Yashab Chandra 73 Samarth Dwivedi 77 Aman Raj 77; 215 Samarth Dwivedi 69 Veer Ahlawat 72 Yashab Chandra 74; 210 Yashab Chandra 66 Aman Raj 72 Samarth Dwivedi 72
656 Team England 216 Jamie Bower 66 Paul Kinnear 75 Alfie Plant 75; 226 Jamie Bower 72 Paul Kinnear 76 Nicholas John Elliott 78; 214 Jamie Bower 68 Alfie Plant 71 Nicholas John Elliott 75
674 Team Switzerland 227 Jeremy Freiburghaus 75 Robert Foley 76 Neal Woernhard 76; 222 Robert Foley 72 Neal Woernhard 73 Valerian Huelin 77; 225 Neal Woernhard 72 Robert Foley 74 Valerian Huelin 79
680 Team Mauritius 224 Ludovic Bax 72 Ian Espitalier Noel 74 Phil Minkley 78; 223 Ludovic Bax 69 Ian Espitalier Noel 76 Phil Minkley 78; 233 Ian Espitalier Noel 75 Ludovic Bax 78 Rakesh Channoo 80
690 Team Zimbabwe 230 David Amm 72 Kieran Vincent 74 Tafara Mpofu 84; 229 Kieran Vincent 70 David Amm 75 Tafara Mpofu 84; 231 Kieran Vincent 69 David Amm 77 John Milazi 85
717 Team Kenya 249 Kenneth Bollo 79 Alfred Nandwa 82 Edwin Mudanyi 88; 239 Kenneth Bollo 76 Edwin Mudanyi 79 Alfred Nandwa 84; 229 Edwin Mudanyi 76 John Kariuki 76 Kenneth Bollo 77
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
