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Lourenda Steyn plays a shot on round two of the 2025 First Capital Bank Zimbabwe Junior Open: Image Credit - Borrowdale Brooke Golf Estate

South Africa’s rising golf stars, Andries van der Vyver and Lourenda Steyn, claimed commanding victories in the boys’ and girls’ categories respectively at the 2025 First Capital Bank Zimbabwe Junior Open, held at Borrowdale Brooke Golf Estate in Harare.

Van der Vyver stormed to his maiden international title with a scintillating final-round 63, edging out local favourite Keegan Shutt by one stroke. Meanwhile, Steyn cruised to an eight-shot triumph over Zoey Rhoda in the girls’ championship, having led from the opening round up to the last in her international breakthrough.

On the combined overall leaderboard, Steyn was in position four, only behind Van der Vyver, Shutt and Craig Cilliers. It wasn’t the best of starts to the tournament for Van der Vyver who shot two-over-par-74 in the first round, five strokes behind Cilliers (69) and four behind Shutt who carded a first round score of two-under-par-70. In the second round, Vyver came back stronger with a four-under-par-68 which left him on two-under-par-142 going into the third and final round. At that time, he was three strokes behind Shutt and Cilliers who were tied for pole position on five-under-par-139. However, a remarkable final round nine-under-par-63 saw Van der Vyver leapfrog frog Shutt and Cilliers to the top of the leaderboard with an impressive 11-under-par-205 while Shutt, who shot a final round five-under-par-67, settled for second with Cilliers, carding two-under-par-70 finishing in third place. Shutt finished on 10-under-par-206, three strokes ahead of third placed Cilliers on seven-under-par-209. “It’s a massive priviledge just to play here and win as well. I knew it was Keegan’s home course, so I knew I had to go low. I went out there, played my normal game, fairway-green. Likely today, a couple of putts rolled in, and I made an eagle, went on a birdie run in the front nine and shot 30. Likely, on the 18th I made a birdie to clear by one,” said Van de Vyver. The girls’ champion, Steyn started the tournament with a one-under-par-71 and followed it up with an impressive three-under-par-69 in the second round. She rounded off with a level-par-72 in the third round for her overall four-under-par-212. Second placed Rhoda finished on four-over-par-220 with round scores of 73, 75 and 72 while in third place there was Phenyo Sebata on 11-over-par-227 with scores of 79, 76 and 72. “It meant a lot to me and I want to thank GolfRSA for giving me the opportunity to play. I practiced really hard and I worked on my mental game to come back stronger here. My strategy was to play it safe and also aggressively, to go a little bit under, which I did and to get those birdies,” said Steyn.

Juniors from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, China, Zambia and France took part at the tournament. The boys’ top leaderboard was made up of Van Der Vyver (-11), Shutt (-10), Cilliers (-7), Zinan Maimane (-3), Jayden Jacobs (-2), Gideon Fourie (level), Alex Frankel (+1), Evan Marais (+2) and Ruben-Hein Churr (+3). The girls’ leaderboard looked as follows: Steyn (-4), Rhoda (+4), Sebata (+11), Orateng Maphauke (+12), Megan Marais (+15), Zayaan Hendricks (+15), Yixuan Mu (+16), Zane Fourie (+21), Mea Swart (+26) and Alessia Goussard (+27).