South African Oliver Bekker confessed he momentarily “lost the ability to play golf” before showing great coolness under pressure in winning the Nexus Advisernet Bowra & O’Dea WA Open at Mount Lawley Golf Club today.
Fittingly during a week in which nothing about the outcome of this tournament seemed certain, the 40-year-old kept things interesting until the end. Bekker carded a three-under 69 to finish a shot clear of Victorian Cameron John (71) after a closing round where the result remained unclear until the final throes.
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Buffeted by steady winds and frequent squalls of rain, the Mount Lawley layout gave the field all they could handle. Strong gusts played havoc with approach shots and putts in particular. They were conditions ripe for a ‘lurker’ to accelerate at the right moment and pinch the title.
The man who did so was Bekker, striking a pinpoint iron shot at the difficult par-3 17th hole that finished tap-in distance away for a crucial separating birdie. It was the signature moment the afternoon had called for, allowing the Pretorian to edge clear of his pursuers.
Earlier, he poured in a 25-foot birdie putt at the 13th hole to announce himself as the man to beat, even if it took four more holes to feel comfortable. One hole later, having left a fairway-bunker shot in the grassy verge of the trap he was trying to escape, Bekker holed another key putt to avoid a double-bogey and remain in the outright lead.
That was the moment that left the eventual champion wondering about his ability to still play the game, yet the gritty bogey save steeled him for the resolute finish he needed to take the trophy.
John, Lachlan Barker, Nathan Barbieri, Perth’s Curtis Luck and tournament drawcard Marc Leishman each had moments of contention during a day when it was difficult for players to break clear and stamp their authority. Leishman holed a sharp-breaking, 30-foot putt for birdie on the 72nd hole that looked consequential at the time but ultimately left him two shots shy.
Yet Bekker, who was the lone player to break 70 during a trying third round, almost tossed the championship away on the final green. After choosing to putt his third shot from short of the par-5 green, he almost committed the cardinal sin of running the ball into a greenside bunker. The ball just avoided the sand yet remained so close to the precipice that Bekker needed to putt left-handed using the back of his putterhead for his fourth shot. After running that shot 12 feet past the cup, he calmly holed the comebacker for par.
The title was only secured when John narrowly missed a 20-foot birdie putt to tie.
“I’m not used to playing on this kind of turf, so I’m putting whenever I get the chance,” Bekker said of his club selection on the last hole. “I looked at the scoreboard – it was the first time I saw the scoreboard for a while – and I saw, Well, I’m one shot ahead, but it’s a par 5. Anybody could make [birdie]… I went from, I need to just make a 5, to, I probably need to make a 4 to win outright.
“I was going to go a little bit further right with my first putt, and I just didn’t hit it hard enough and it just kept going left and left. I’m thinking, Well, I’ve just putted this thing into the bunker. I was in shock, really.
“It didn’t need much more and it would have actually come down again and been probably inside 10 feet. As it was, I left myself with a 20-footer on the edge of the bunker and having to putt left-handed to try to make contact. That was a first for me. I don’t think I can ever remember having to do that.”
Bekker, who was already contemplating moving to Perth with his family, is a step closer to formalising his relocation to our shores.
“It makes things a lot easier now that I’ve got a tour to play on,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of scouting and a lot of looking around… There’s a very high likelihood of coming over to Australia.”
You could imagine Bekker wanting to seek membership at Mount Lawley, which was the other winner from this WA Open. In many ways this single week vindicated the club’s decision to bring in OCM Golf to renovate the layout, which only re-opened for play in March. That seven-under-par held the lead after 18 holes and after 72 holes says much about its calibre as a tournament venue.
And when your champion can go from authoring a laser-like iron shot on one of the hardest holes on the course one minute to almost putting into a bunker the next, it says a lot about the course’s ability to test every facet of a professional’s game.
