Haydn Porteous holds off Stone for victory

South African Haydn Porteous beat his compatriot and childhood friend Brandon Stone in a dramatic sudden-death play-off at the par-72 Karen Country Club course on Sunday to claim his first professional golf title.

Porteous becomes the fifth South African to win the Kenya Open, following the footsteps of Trevor Immelman, Ashley Roestoff, Michiel Bothma and last year’s winner Jake Roos.

"This is a win I will never forget in my life, playing a good round of golf and going to play-off with a close friend we have been playing together since we were 12 years, its wonderful," said the 20-year-old Porteous, who is from Johannesburg.

"I have been working so had since January trying to sharpen my game and I am glad it has paid off. I will play in most of the Challenge Tour events to see how it goes at the end," said the new Kenya Open champion.

Porteous led all the way up to the 18th hole where he and Brandon birded the 18th to tie for 17 under par forcing the play off at the 12th where Porteous hit a superb tee shot to about five feet, sank for an eagle two, while Brandon Stone fired to the bunker, chipped out but far from the pin.

"I had a lot of fun playing with Haydn, it was fantastic, but I think Haydn deserved to win than me. He played fantastic golf through out the week," said Stone who started the final round a shot better than Haydn on 14 under par.

He double bogeyed the 13th hole after dropping a shot at the seventh, against six birdies which however left him with three under par 69 for the 17 under par 271.

The new champion Porteous, on the other hand, bogeyed the sixth, hit his tee shot to the right bunker at the 14th, chipped over past the pin to drop his second shot of the day.

He had taken off well for the day, firing two back to back birdies at the first and second, added one at the fifth, the birdied the 11th, and stayed on 16 under par up to the 18th where he birdied for a final round four under par 68 and 17 under par 271, his best so far.

"I love this course, it’s a wonderful course and given the chance, I will definitely come back," said Porteous who is very familiar with Kenyan golfers having played against them in amateur events.

England’s George Woolgar was meanwhile on his own in third place with 16 under par 272 after a 67 for for the day, he was a shot better than compatriot Sam Walker who shot three under par 69 for 273.

Dutch Daan Huizing birdied seven times, but against four single bogeys and a double bogey for one under par 71 and an all rounds total 13 under par 275.

A total of 64 pros had made the two under par cut in this year’s open once again sponsored by Barclays Bank, and a host of other sponsors among them Coca-Cola, Transcentury, KBL, Safaricom, Nation Media Group and Pewin Motors/General Motors.