Brandon Stone wins SA Open

It was a maiden victory for South African Brandon Stone on his 27^th European Tour event start, and it has propelled him from a lowly 249^th in the official World Golf Ranking to 120. Not a bad way to start your season.

He’s already the third first-time winner of the 2016 European Tour season, alongside Nathan Holman (Australian PGA Championship), Marc Leishman (Nedbank Golf Challenge).

 This is the first time on The European Tour since 2012 there have been three debut winners in a row. They were:  Webb Simpson (U.S. Open Championship), Danny Willett (BMW International Open) and Jamie Donaldson (Irish Open).

2015 also got off to a cracking start with Andy Sullivan, and then that chap Jordan Spieth coming along. And Brandon Stone, like Jordan last year, is just 22-years of age. He won a tidy €158,000, and a European Tour exemption until the end of 2017 season.

His victory was by no means a shoe in, as he had to fight back hard after being five shots ahead to being two shots behind, after he bogeyed six out of seven holes. Ouch!

He recovered with four birdies to card a one-under par 71 to win on 14 under, beating his fellow South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout by two shots. England's Daniel Brooks finished third a shot further back.

There were emotional scenes at the end as he broke down in tears after his victory and told Sky Sports: "I don't have the vocab to describe how I feel right now.

"That round was the most up-and-down round that I've ever had in my life.

"Walking up to the 18th made me think about how the last few years have been up and down and up and down and just to pull it through at the end there, I can't describe it."

 We were drained as well. And that was before the final round at the Hyundai had even started. We’re going to be emotional wrecks by the end of the season if everything carries on like this. We might be ruined even before the Masters starts at this rate.