Jade Buitendag Finishes Second in Eastern Province Amateur Strokeplay Championship

Jade Buitendag has been playing some excellent golf in recent months and his effort and consistency has been rewarded with another outstanding finish in the Eastern Province Amateur Strokeplay Championships played at Humewood Golf Club.  Jade was one of only three players to break par over the 54 holes of the tournament, finishing 2 strokes behind Hendrikus Stoop of North Gauteng, with South Africa’s third ranked amateur Gerlou Roux in third place.  Jade had rounds of 71, 74. 69 for a 2 under par total of 214.  Conditions at the Humewood Links, one of South Africa’s great old courses, were very tough, with strong winds and rain, making Jade’s performance all the more meritorious.

KeNako’s Head Professional Roger Wessels is expecting Jade to break through soon with a win in a National tournament and he is very pleased to see Jade playing so well.  It will surely not be long before Jade achieves a victory at one of the National ranking tournaments.  Not only has Jade’s technical ability improved but so too has his physical strength and his mental toughness.  He has been involved with a strenuous physical program with KeNako Sports Science Professional Jan-Harm Venter and the results of this program are now physically evident.  After Jade joined KeNako Academy Roger had felt that Jade needed to improve his strength to be more competitive and to take his game to the next level – he has certainly achieved this and as he continues with the program so too will the benefits of his training program show further rewards.  Jade has also been benefitting from the Weekly Mental Skills sessions and after a recent session which related to ‘Fearless’ he expressed his enthusiasm for the subject matter so it is even more rewarding to to see him win first the Kingswood Open, which is a Southern Cape Order of Merit tournament, followed by a second place finish in the Eastern Province Amateur Strokeplay Championship, a National Tournament, in his last two tournament starts.

Fellow school leaver Andre Nel was KeNako Academy’s only other entrant and he too enjoyed a good tournament, finishing in 9th position.  Congratulations on your excellent result Jade and well played on another top ten finish Andre!  Both young men are climbing the National Rankings, with Jade now moving up to 16th position and Andre ranked 32nd.

Jade3 Aug 2014