Casey Jarvis was 12 years old when he watched good friend and countryman Brandon Stone win the 2016 South African Open.
Ten years later, Jarvis has a national open of his own – and two major invites.
Jarvis fired a closing 3-under 67 Sunday at Stellenbosch Golf Club to win by three shots over fellow South African Hennie Du Plessis, Frederic Lacroix and Francesco Laporta. By virtue of his win, his second in a row on the DP World Tour, the 22-year-old Jarvis earned spots in this year’s Masters and Open Championship. It will be Jarvis’ debut in both.
“I feel on top of the world in this moment,” Jarvis said. “I feel absolutely incredible. To win in front of my home crowd in my home open is just absolutely fantastic. … I just had a slight feeling from the start of the week that something crazy was going to happen.”
Jarvis is already the third player to win multiple titles this season on the DP World Tour, joining Jayden Schaper and Patrick Reed. He’s also the seventh straight South African to win his home open, a streak that started with Louis Oosthuizen in 2018.
Starting the final round with a one-shot advantage, Jarvis birdied three of his first five holes to build a cushion, which never dropped below two shots as he carded only one bogey all day. There was a 35-minute lightning delay with the final group standing on the 18th tee. Du Plessis then rinsed his final approach and bogeyed the final hole to drop back into a tie for second and miss out on an Open ticket; Lacroix and Laporta grabbed the final two spots via their world ranking.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid to play at Augusta,” Jarvis said. “I thought about it this morning, I tried not to but it was hard not to think about it, but I cannot wait to go there and see how my game compares to the best players in the world.”
Eddie Pepperell fired a final-round 64 to finish solo fifth at 10 under. It was his best finish since he was third at the ISPS Handa World Invitational.