By Kent Gray
MG Keyser clearly doesn’t do this winning lark easy but he does do the only part of the equation that really matters.

The 30-year-old South African earned a place in the MENA Tour record books Wednesday when he captured the $30,000 Golf Citizen Classic in a sudden death playoff with Spaniard Victor Bertran, becoming just the second player to win back-to-back titles on the developmental circuit.

But a week after double-bogeying the penultimate hole at the Dubai Creek Open to make his victory over amateurs Rayhan Thomas and Todd Clements a little more nerve jangling than it needed to be, Keyser again needed to dig deep at The Els Club where he trains regularly.

The Dubai-based Pretorian’s two stroke overnight lead vanished when he double-bogeying the par 5 5th while Bertran, playing in the seventh to last group, went about setting the clubhouse target at -9 with a closing 66.

Keyser needed two birdies in his last three holes, including a gain on the 54th and last hole of regulation to force the playoff with a final round 73. He then repeated the two-putt birdie on The Els’18th in the first hole of overtime as Bertran tugged his second shot left en-route to a bogey.

“It was a pretty long day out there [in the heat], but luckily I managed to get the job done,” said Keyser.

“I didn’t play very good golf all day, but I know the course pretty well and that knowledge came in handy. I knew the 16th and 18th are birdiable holes and I did birdie them to stay in the hunt.”

Keyser collects his $5400 winner’s cheque from Troon International president Mark Chapleski (right), Els Club GM Karl Whitehead and tournament co-ordinator Thomas Nicholson.

Keyser emulated Zane Scotland who has two doubles among his 10 tour titles – the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open and RAK Classic in 2013 and the 2014 Ghala Valley Open and Golf Citizen Masters Al Ain. But he won’t have a shot at a hat-trick of titles at next week’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open at Yas Links as he has he returns to the Asian Development Tour.

“I would have loved to give it a go for a hat-trick of wins on the MENA Tour, but unfortunately I have to travel to Malaysia. But I really enjoyed playing on the MENA Tour.”

Keyser’s absence will be well and truly made up for by the return of 2011 Open champion and former Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke who will play his second MENA Tour event in three weeks.

Scotland’s bid for his first victory since 2016, meanwhile, fell short after he closed with a 74 that left the Englishman T-4 at -6, one behind countryman Adam Sagar.

Englishman Clements carded a flawless 69 to win the amateur division after week after sharing the spoils with Thomas. Clements leads the amateur order of merit with 181 points from countryman Sam Hobday (154 pts) and Dubai’s Michael Harradine (140 pts).

Keyser jumped to the top of the Pro OOM standings with 18,774 points. Swede Fredrik From (18,397) and Englishman Jamie Elson (17,453) round out the top three after finishing T-9 and T-21 at The Els.