Toby

Tree

The Englishman might have a very apt name for a golfer (of sorts), but he has little experience at this level. He’s made 14 starts on the European Tour, landed six weekends, but only one of them has reaped better than T50. That was when he was T14 in the 2016 Tshwane Open. He does however have knowledge of this course because he missed the cut here in 2017 when carding 74-75. He made limited starts on the Challenge Tour in 2019, his best in 11 appearances was T10 on seasonal debut in Turkey. He made the cut last week at Leopard Creek but needed 81-75 at the weekend.

The young Englishman is making just his eighth start on the European Tour although this is his third at the Tshwane where he was T53 on debut in 2015 (second round 63) and T14 last year (Saturday 65). Tree, who plays most of his golf on the South African Sunshine Tour and was T5 in the recent Dimension Data Pro-Am, started slowly today with three pars and a bogey in his opening four holes. But over the next 10 he birdied 50% of them with red numbers at 5, 6, 9, 11, 13 and 14. Tree closed with four pars to secure his place in the top five.

The 21-year-old bogeyed the second and swallowed a double at the last but between those setbacks he played some superb golf to post 4-under 206 with 18 holes to play. Tree, who has cashed just once in his brief career at this level, birdied 4, 5 and 8 and then made a dramatic move with two eagles in four holes at Pretoria CC’s only par fives (the 9th and 12th). He added another birdie at 15 before his disappointing finish at 18 which he’s played in a combined 4-over so far this week. Tree is five shots behind leader Charl Schwartzel going into the final round.