adminRoos, raced to his seventh Sunshine Tour championship and his first Zimbabwe Open title after carding a fine five-under par 67 in the final round.
The golfer, who turns 33 years on October 20, completed the four rounds with an aggregate score of 14 under 274 after shooting 69, 67 and 71 in the opening three rounds.
Former Zim Open champion Darren Fichardt finished tied in second with Italian national Franseco Laporta on 13 under 275 after both finished the round with an even score of 72.
The 2001 champion Fichardt, made six birdies and an equal number of bogeys as Laporta over-shot twice while making a triple bogey along the way.
Doug McGuigan and Lindani Ndwandwe shared fourth place, another stroke further back on 12-under-par.
South Africa’s Jaco Ahlers was fifth on 11-under with Zimbabwe’s Ryan Cairns on 10 under 278, the best placed local.
Cairns had a big crowd urging him on but in the end he settled for R39 311 purse tied with Desvonde Botes, Charl Coetzee and Titch Moore.
But it was Fichardt and Laporta who could have forced an exciting play-off with Roos had either of them managed to make a birdie on the 18th hole but they came agonisingly close on the last hole.
As Fichardt and Laporta were sweating over the possibility of making a birdie to force a play-off, Roos was already bracing for what could have been another play-off that never was.
The Pretoria-born golfer has won his previous five tournaments on the tour via a play-off.
Roos yesterday earned R261 525 for his efforts and said he will certainly be back to defend his title next year.
“I kind of saw midway through at the beginning of the back nine that no one else was really pulling away. So I knew that I still had a great chance, and luckily from there things started happening for me.
“I was actually surprised when I got to the greens (on the 18th) to see that other players were on 13 under par because I had looked at the score board on 17 and I only had 12, so I figured that I did not need to be that aggressive with my second shot and I ended up playing conservatively,” said Roos.
By that time, Fichardt and Laporta, who still had four shots to force a play-off but both kissed the edges of the hole with the penultimate shot.
“I was expecting the Italian (Laporta) to make a good putt and force a play-off and not Darren from about 45 feet,” said Roos.
Unlike Fichardt and Laporta, who were playing with a sizeable crowd following their game, Roos did not have as much pressure as he had a smaller group following his game.
“On the 15th hole, that was really the turning point for my game that kind of got me going.
“I missed the green on the right but just managed to chip it in and I think that shot got the momentum going.
“I had started well, and then got a little slow in the middle when I made a bogey on the seventh. I finished strongly with birdies on 13, 15 and 16th hole,” said Roos.
Last year’s winner, Chris Swanepoel was placed 30th after scoring a one under 287.
Golden Pilsner final score board:
274 – Jake Roos (RSA) 69 67 71 67
275 – Darren Fichardt (RSA) 66 69 68 72, Francesco Laporta (ITA) 74 66 63 72
276 – Doug McGuigan (RSA) 70 71 69 66, Lindani Ndwandwe (RSA) 70 68 68 70
277 – Jaco Ahlers (RSA) 70 70 69 68
278 – Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 71 70 69 68, Desvonde Botes (RSA) 69 69 75 65, , Charl Coetzee (RSA) 68 70 71 69, Titch Moore (RSA) 68 72 69 69
280 – Andrew Georgiou (RSA) 72 72 70 66, PH McIntyre (RSA) 71 73 67 69
281 – Jared Harvey (RSA) 68 72 73 68, Dean Burmester (RSA) 72 67 72 70, Christiaan Basson (RSA) 72 69 70 70
282 – Martin du Toit (RSA) 73 71 71 67, Grant Veenstra (RSA) 73 69 71 69, Bryce Easton (RSA) 73 66 70 73, Ulrich van den Berg (RSA) 70 67 71 74.
283 – Merrick Bremner (RSA) 73 69 71 70
284 – Divan van den Heever (RSA) 68 73 72 71, Darryn Lloyd (RSA) 66 71 74 73, Theunis Spangenberg (RSA) 69 69 73 73, Louis de Jager (RSA) 71 66 71 76
285 – Brett Liddle (RSA) 73 73 70 69, Justin Harding (RSA) 70 70 75 70, Neil Schietekat (RSA) 73 69 71 72
286 – Alex Haindl (RSA) 74 71 73 68, Mark Murless (RSA) 68 74 74 70
287 – Jacques Kruyswijk (RSA) 72 70 78 67, Tyrone Ferreira (RSA) 71 72 74 70, Wallie Coetsee (RSA) 72 72 73 70, Allan Versfeld (RSA) 72 71 73 71, Chris Swanepoel (RSA) 69 70 75 73, Aron Zemmer (ITA) 66 74 74 73, Grant Muller (RSA) 72 71 69 75
288 – Sean Crocker (AMA) (ZIM) 69 74 72 73, Callie Swart (RSA) 72 73 74 69, Andrew Curlewis (RSA) 72 74 71 71, , Wynand Dingle (RSA) 72 73 70 73, Graham van der Merwe (RSA) 71 74 69 74
289 – Benjamin Follett-Smith (AMA) (ZIM) 75 68 75 71, Drikus Bruyns (RSA) 75 69 72 73, Hennie Otto (RSA) 71 69 74 75
290 – Pieter Moolman (RSA) 72 72 76 70, Warren Abery (RSA) 75 68 73 74, CJ du Plessis (RSA) 71 72 73 74, Johan du Buisson (RSA) 73 71 71 75
291 – Clive Nguru (ZIM) (AMA) 73 72 74 72, Ryan Thompson (RSA) 76 69 75 71,
292 – Kyle Stevens (RSA) 74 72 72 74, James Kingston (RSA) 70 76 72 74, Shaun Smith (RSA) 72 72 72 76, Coenie Stoop (RSA) 74 71 70 77
293 – Day Muyambo (ZIM) 77 67 79 70, Clifford Howes (RSA) 74 72 73 74, Riekus Nortje (RSA) 70 76 72 75, Tich Musemburi (ZIM) 73 72 71 77
294 – TC Charamba (ZIM) 79 66 76 73, Bennie van der Merwe (RSA) 75 71 76 72, JP van der Walt (RSA) 74 72 75 73, Anthony Michael (RSA) 73 72 71 78
295 – Micky Hough (ZIM) 74 72 72 77, Michiel Bothma (RSA) 73 72 75 75, Sipho Bujela (RSA) 73 71 74 77,
296 – Matthew Carvell (RSA) 71 70 79 76, Stefan Engell Andersen (KEN) 74 68 78 76
297 – Robson Saurombe (ZIM) 74 71 77 75, Divan Gerber (RSA) 74 71 79 73, Derik Ferreira (RSA) 72 74 77 74, Ryan Strauss (RSA) 72 73 75 77
298 – Ryan Tipping (RSA) 74 71 77 76, Kenneth Dube (RSA) 76 70 76 76
302 – Derick Petersen (RSA) 74 72 76 80
303 – Drikus van der Walt (RSA) 75 71 87 70
Online Reporter