Despite an opening 75 which
had him languishing at the tail of the field Brett Rumford has clawed his way
into the top-10 of the European Tour’s Tshwane Open.

The five time European Tour winner
was all class in recovering from his disappointing first round with scores of
67-68-66 to get to 4-under for the week and T7.

Only three players bettered
Rumford’s score on the final day and only four were ahead of him in each of the
second and third rounds.

Rumford had a horror time at
the tournament in 2015 when he was forced to withdraw after 36 holes with a
digestive blockage.

He eventually underwent
surgery to remove 30 cm of his small intestine before spending 17 days in two
different hospitals, the second of which he later described as ‘like a prison
camp’.

But despite that experience
Rumford showed a liking for the course through 36 holes last year with rounds
of 64-70 seeing him T10 prior to his withdrawal.

His opening round aside,
Rumford continued what has been an encouraging start to the season with his
fourth consecutive made cut and first top-10 finish.

Six Australians began the
week in South Africa with Jason Scrivener and Dimi Papadatos the only other two
to make the cut.

Scrivener fought hard to
make the weekend after a weather delay Friday afternoon but struggled at the
weekend, a Sunday 76 dropping him 21 places down the leader board to T63.

Papadatos finished on the
same score with rounds of 71-72-73-73 while Daniel Gaunt and tournament invitees
Ben Eccles and Lincoln Tighe all missed the cut.