Year: 2022

ST FRANCIS BAY, Eastern Cape – Casey Jarvis has been known as a top-class talent for some time now and the Sunshine Tour rookie produced a display of his considerable ability as he fired a brilliant four-under-par 68 on Friday to snatch a two-stroke lead after the second round of the prestigious PGA Championship at the St Francis Links.

The 19-year-old Jarvis goes into the weekend on a total of eight-under-par, two ahead of a chasing pack on six-under which includes a pair of decorated veterans in George Coetzee and Hennie Otto.

Jarvis, a star for the GolfRSA squad on fairways around the world before he turned pro this year, was a shot off the lead at the start of the second round. A measured front nine saw him reach the turn in level-par, with two birdies and two bogeys, but he then produced a sensational back nine.

He netted a pair of birdies on the par-four 10^th and 11^th holes, and then conquered the famous 533-yard, par-five 13^th with an eagle. With a tricky run of holes into the wind to finish, Jarvis did well to come home in par and complete a memorable day in his fledgling pro career.

“My iron play was really good today, I struck the ball well and I started pretty solid, but I didn’t make many putts. But then I hit good shots at 10 and 11, where I made a long putt, and a very good eagle at 13 after a great drive and hitting a wedge in to 10 feet,” Jarvis said.

“The wind picked up on the back nine and it was a strong breeze, there was wind on the front nine as well but it was not as hard. From 15 onwards, we were into the wind, so it was a tricky finish.

“I haven’t been in this position before on the Sunshine Tour and it’s great to be there, I’m really excited. I must just try not to get ahead of myself on the weekend, take it one shot at a time,” the leading amateur in the 2020 SA Open, said.

Coetzee had an up-and-down front nine with back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth holes, but then three successive bogeys before the turn. He was now slipping a bit behind Jarvis, but a precious run of three consecutive birdies from the 12^th meant he would still finish under-par and stay well in touch despite another bogey on the par-three penultimate hole.

Malcolm Mitchell played excellent golf to also shoot a 68 and climb into the share of second with just one dropped shot on Friday. Otto shot a fine 69 to also sit on six-under at the halfway mark, while Rhys West and Hennie O’Kennedy posted two-under 70s to also share second.

But Martin Vorster was the biggest climber up the leaderboard with his 67, the joint-best round of the day that vaulted him from tied-19^th into the share of second.

Jake Redman also fired a 67 to sit a shot further back on five-under-par.

ST FRANCIS BAY (Eastern Cape) – George Coetzee shot a five-under-par 67 with just two bogeys to seemingly cruise into a share of the lead after the first round of the PGA Championship, but the multiple winner on both the Sunshine and DP World Tours said it had actually been a struggle on a typically testing day at the St Francis Links on Thursday.

Coetzee began his round with a bogey on the par-four 10^th, but then went to the turn with four birdies. On the front nine, his only other drop came on the par-four fifth, with birdies on either side of it, and the 36-year-old completed his round with an excellent birdie on the par-four ninth.

Coetzee, who won the 2011 PGA Championship at Country Club Johannesburg after finishing runner-up the year before, is tied for the lead with Danie van Niekerk, the 34-year-old Lichtenburg golfer who produced a brilliant bogey-free round with three birdies on the front nine, after he also started on the 10^th.

“It was definitely tricky out there and I’m happy with my score,” Coetzee said. “All-in-all, I’m happy just to be in the mix and to be in a good rhythm. I made a lot of putts on my last nine holes when it was really quite tricky, and that kept my scorecard together.

“But it was a hairy last bunch of holes into the wind,” Coetzee said.

The winner of a second consecutive Vodacom Origins of Golf Series De Zalze title when he last played in South Africa in August, Coetzee said that his two bogeys had come from a lack of familiarity with the seaside course.

“My two bogeys were basically down to a lack of knowledge of the course, taking the wrong club off the tee or playing to the wrong part of the green, like on my second on the 10^th hole. Hopefully I learn quickly and make better decisions tomorrow,” Coetzee said.

The top-10 on the leaderboard at the end of the first round is filled with experienced or in-form golfers that will ensure Coetzee and Van Niekerk are kept on their toes.

Jake Roos and Hennie O’Kennedy are one shot behind on four-under with Casey Jarvis, JJ Senekal and Rhys West.

Hennie Otto, who was the runner-up in the PGA Championship in both 2002 and 2008, is with Stefan Wears-Taylor and Samuel Simpson on three-under.

The PGA Championship is South Africa’s second-oldest professional tournament and Otto would dearly love to add that title to his 2011 SA Open win at Serengeti Estate.

Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, boxing great Brian Mitchell, Springbok rugby star Victor Matfield, and footballers Mark Fish, Shaun Bartlett and Jimmy Tau will join an array of other former sports stars, celebrities, business leaders and Sunshine Tour professionals who have gathered to show their support for the inaugural Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational at the Lost City Golf Course at Sun City from 19-20 November.

The biggest names in sport and business will come together in aid of a charity tournament that celebrates the life and legacy of the late Vivienne Player and the work of the Gary and Vivenne Player Foundation to raise funds for the underprivileged.

The beneficiary for the 2022 Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational is the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School, located alongside the Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate and originally founded by Gary and Vivienne Player on what was then their family farm.

The other sports stars who will support this initiative are rugby legends Butch James, Akona and Odwa Ndungane, Patrick Lambie, Stefan Terblanche and Owen Nkumane, Proteas cricketers Herschelle Gibbs and Vernon Philander, former Bafana Bafana footballers Matthew Booth, Aaron Mokoena and Mark Williams, and renowned South African women’s golfer Sally Little.

“Vivienne had a tremendous love for people and she was also passionate about sport, having played golf at a high level herself. So I know it would’ve been very close to her heart to see so many of South Africa’s top sportsmen and women support my and her passion to help the underprivileged, and in this case the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School and the children and teachers there that Vivenne felt so deeply about,” said Gary Player.

The field includes the top 18 professionals from the Sunshine Tour’s Gary and Vivienne Player Challenge played at Selborne Park Golf Club in September, as well as the leading five professionals outside the top 18 who are also a part of the Papwa Sewgolum Class for historically disadvantaged golfers on the Tour.

ST FRANCIS BAY (Eastern Cape) – The PGA Championship, which tees off at St Francis Links on Thursday, has a tantalising field of Sunshine Tour professionals pushing to add their names to the trophy of South Africa’s second oldest professional tournament.

While George Coetzee and Chile’s Matias Calderon are obvious favourites as winners of this prestigious title in 2011 and 2018 respectively, it is the runners-up here in recent years as well as a host of in-form players locally who could break through this week.

The field this week includes 11 of the 19 winners on the Sunshine Tour this season, with Combrinck Smit as the most recent champion.

Smit’s victory in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final in windy conditions at Pinnacle Point Estate last week would’ve been the perfect preparation for a St Francis Links course where the weather can be just as challenging. And his second-place finish in the 2018 PGA Championship will also be enough motivation to go one better this week.

Albert Venter has already won twice this year to lift him into second place on the Sunshine Tour’s Luno Order of Merit, and he is coming off a top-five finish in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final.

MJ Viljoen has finishes of fifth and seventh in the 2017 and 2020 PGA Championships to suggest he could add his name to this historic trophy this week.

And Ruan Korb, Ockie Strydom, Jayden Schaper, Heinrich Bruiners and Hennie O’Kennedy all performed well in the last Sunshine Tour event played at St Francis Links in October.

Oliver Bekker, South Africa’s latest DP World Tour star, has confirmed his place in this month’s Joburg Open and believes the tournament will help to open doors for even more South Africans to become household names in European golf within the next five years.

Bekker is back on local fairways following a successful debut season on the DP World Tour in which he had eight top-10s and a runner-up finish in the Catalunya Championship as he has climbed into 33^rd place on the DP World Tour Rankings. His focus is now on a strong run of Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournaments in South Africa, beginning with the Joburg Open at Houghton Golf Club from November 24-27, 2022.

At various levels of South African professional golf the Joburg Open has provided a strong sense of opportunity for the country’s golfers and their global aspirations, while at the same time also helping to transform the South African golf landscape through its support of historically disadvantaged professionals competing in this event.

Thriston Lawrence claimed his maiden DP World Tour victory in the 2021 Joburg Open and went on to win a second title on the Omega European Masters this year as well as play in his first Major in the 150^thOpen in St Andrews. And Dylan Naidoo, who has played in the Joburg Open since he was an amateur and is a member of the Sunshine Tour’s Papwa Sewgolum Class for historically disadvantaged golfers, will return to the tournament this year as a true inspiration after breaking through with his maiden Sunshine Tour victory in the SunBet Challenge Sun Sibaya this year.

It all points to what Bekker believes is the foundation for a wave of new talent busy emerging from South Africa.

“I’ve always believed that with our DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournaments, and then the added Challenge Tour co-sanctioned tournaments, that we’re going to have a lot of South Africans making it onto the DP World Tour. We’re going to make an impact over there. We’ve got so much talent in this country and you just need the opportunity to get there, and for that door to open and to get that chance to get in there. I’m sure a lot of our players will stay on the DP World Tour for a very long time, and that we’ll also see a lot of South Africans coming through in the next five years that will be household names in Europe for a long time to come. It’s good to see the South African players making their presence felt on the DP World Tour. It’s exciting,” said Bekker.

Tickets for the Joburg Open are available at https://sunshinetour.com/.