Centurion Country Club’s Keagan Crosbie held on for an impressive win in the Nomads Inland Order of Merit 2 event at Modderfontein Golf Club.

Having started the day a shot off the lead of Ruimsig’s Chris van der Merwe, the diminutive Crosie went backwards in a hurry with three bogeys in his first seven holes. He corrected things with three straight birdies from the 8th hole and added another birdie at the par-five 13th to get into red numbers for the day and 2 under overall.

In a tightly bunched leaderboard, Van der Merwe, Hannes Strooh, Nico Booysens, Johndre Ludick, Grant Labuschagne, Roelof Craig, Joshua Koekemoer and Timothy Daniels were all in with a shout of victory, before slipping back down the leaderboard.

In the end, Crosbie held on for a fine tournament victory, after shooting consecutive rounds of 1-under-par 71, just a stroke clear of Strooh.

“I’ve been playing really well lately,” Crosbie said. “I’ve been getting myself into contention but not quite getting over the line, so it feels great to be standing with the trophy here today.

“I definitely felt the nerves coming down the stretch, but I told myself to stay in the moment and play one shot at a time. I knew I was good enough to win so I just had to believe in myself. Thankfully it all worked out for me in the end.

“I have to say a big thanks on behalf of all the players to GolfRSA and to Nomads for putting on these events for us. They are so professionally run and we all want to win them so badly. I’m hoping this is the first of many to come for me.”