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GREG Bentley claimed the first of the 16 pre-qualifier spots for this week’s Cape Town Open presented by Sun International when he shot a three-under-par 69 round at the King David Mowbray Golf Club yesterday.

Bentley’s performance saw four locals also making it for the weekend finals set for
The Borrowdale Brooke Golf Club player failed to qualify for the last two tournaments – the Dimension Data Pro-Am last week and the Eye of Africa PGA Championship two weeks ago – but was impressed with his performance.

“Definitely, I am pleased with qualifying,” Bentley said, expressing his satisfaction after his qualifying round.
“I had a bit of pressure this week because I started quite badly in the last two pre-qualifiers, so I needed to, sort of, get some confidence back, so it was nice to get into the tournament and obviously put a good score under the belt,” he added.

“It is not like I have been playing badly. The last two pre-qualifies I started with a double and triple, so, you just leave yourself with too much to do in a pre-qualifier.

‘’Today I just to start a little bit steady and the game is there so it is nice to gain a little bit of confidence to know that I can shot the score that I need.”

While he seemed to navigate this parkland layout with relative ease, Bentley acknowledges the pressure that comes with a qualifying round.

“There is, honestly, more pressure because you come all the way down to Cape Town and if you do not make it through this one round, then you do not get paid, or so you do not get a chance to get paid, so it is quite tough like that, but just try and understand the present and try not to think about scores.

‘‘Just play good and let score take care of itself and hopefully on the given day your score is good enough,” the Zimbabwe national said.

Other players who qualified are Keagan Beyer, Johan Engelbrecht, Nyasha Muyambo, John Parkinson, TJ Biggs, James Wade, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu, Andrew Mackie, Brian Gondo, Ruan Huysamen, Mervyn Galant, Ben Fouchee and Brett Liddle.

While he was happy with his effort in Cape Town yesterday, Bentley was also conscious of the water crisis currently affecting the city.

“Obviously, I mean, the concept is great. Cape Town has been struggling with water. I have friends who live here and it is not easy, so for a professional golf tournament to come here and just show that they care and they going to try and use water as little as possible is a really good thing to do.
‘‘And we will all be trying and use as little liquid as possible this week,” Bentley said. – Sports Reporter/ Sunshine Tour.