Month: June 2021

Alex Haindl took another major step forward in his comeback from injury as he opened with a five-under-par 67 to lead the first round of the Sunshine Tour’s SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City at the Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday.

Haindl, who is currently playing on a medical exemption for a back injury, leads by two shots over Jaco van Zyl and Luke Jerling following their rounds of 69.

Teeing off the first, Haindl birdied two of his first three holes. He turned at one under after a bogey on the difficult eighth, but he claimed that shot back with a birdie on the 10^th. And then he closed with three birdies in his last five holes.

Haindl is hunting his first Sunshine Tour title since 2018 and the fourth of his career. A solid opening round on the challenging Gary Player Country Club course is exactly what he would’ve hoped for as he continues to work his way back from back surgery.

“I had a dynamic fusion in my back in 2015, but unfortunately that failed at the end of 2018 when I was having a really good year. It just collapsed and the screws literally came loose in my back. Then they had to fuse my back. So I’ve been working on strengthening it ever since,” he said.

All of which makes such a good start on the Gary Player Country Club course all the more rewarding.

“It’s nice to get off to a bit of a better start. I just tried to stay in play off the tees and take whatever I could from there. This course is a real grind. To be honest, this has never been a course I’ve felt suits my game because I’ve never felt I’m really long enough. But I had a nice round today and that builds a bit of confidence. I felt like I kept it in play nicely. So hopefully I can stick to my gameplan and hopefully that leads to another two good rounds.”

Van Zyl’s opening round was highlighted by him holing out with his second on the par-four first hole, which played as his 10^th hole of the day.

Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya is currently fourth following an opening two-under-par 70. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

The Sunshine Tour resumes its schedule this week, and with that Neil Schietekat will resume his quest for a victory that seems imminent when he tees it up in the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City starting on Wednesday.

After a brief break following the South African Swing of tournaments co-sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour, the famed Gary Player Country Club welcomes the Tour for the first time since Christiaan Bezuidenhout won the South African Open here in December 2020.

Schietekat returns as the 2018 winner of the SunBet Challenge. It was a triumph that ended a five-year drought between his first victory on the Sunshine Tour and his second.

And he is back at the Gary Player Country Club this week in arguably the best form of his career. The hard work he has been doing with coach Grant Veenstra has led to an incredible level of consistency in his game, with Schietekat having finished in the top 10 in five of his last six tournaments. This includes two third-place finishes.

That stretch of great form actually saw him climb 129 places on the world rankings to 233^rd by the end of those five tournaments.

But what he’ll feel is missing is a victory. He came close when he challenged for the Gauteng Championship presented by Betway at Ebotse in March, but a double-bogey seven on the final hole cost him a title that went to Jbe’ Kruger as Schietekat finished third.

Schietekat will certainly relish bringing his current form to the Gary Player Country Club. Since the SunBet Challenge moved from the neighbouring Lost City Golf Course to the Gary Player Country Club in 2016, Schietekat has had a win and finishes of sixth and 16^th in this tournament.

Apart from Schietekat, the field this week includes another two former champions in Adilson da Silva, who won this event in 2013 when it was played at the Lost City Golf Course, and Keith Horne, the winner in 2015 and also at the Lost City Golf Course. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Oosthuizen praises Mickelson despite disappointment new

Louis Oosthuizen admitted his disappointment at yet another runner-up finish in a Major, but paid tribute to the historic PGA Championship victory of Phil Mickelson.

Speaking to the media after his final round of 73 on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course on Sunday, Oosthuizen said he is fighting hard to win the second Major of his career but that his game was just not where he wanted it to be as he finished on four under par and two strokes behind Mickelson.

“Look, I feel like I’m playing my heart out to get a second Major, and I do know I have the game to do it. This was close. My game wasn’t great on the weekend. It was better today than yesterday. So I just need to work harder on it to get myself in contention again.”

This is Oosthuizen’s second runner-up finish in the PGA Championship, the other coming in 2017. He currently owns his own “Grand Slam” of runner-up finishes in the Majors after finishing second in the Masters in 2012, second in the US Open in 2015, second in The Open in 2015, and now twice second in the PGA Championship.

“You know, another second place, I’ve got to take it. But I feel like I could have probably got two or three more shots out of my game. It was a slow start, but I felt I hit decent iron shots. I stroked it really nice today and just didn’t make anything. Every single putt I hit finished right behind the hole, so it was frustrating with that.”

But Oosthuizen was full of praise for what Mickelson achieved in becoming the oldest winner of a Major at the age of 50.

“It was like the Phil that I remember watching just when I turned pro and it was great to see. I mean, what an achievement to win a Major at 50 years old, and he deserves all of that. It was not easy with the wind, and you know, he kept calm. That’s unbelievable and great stuff.”

Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished as the next best South African in the field on two over par following a closing 77. Branden Grace finished with a 78 for a total of three over par, while Daniel van Tonder ended the week on four over with a closing 73.

Dean Burmester finished on seven over with a 73, and Garrick Higgo signed for a solid final round of 69 for a total of eight over par.

Photo: Getty Images