Month: November 2023

KNYSNA, Western Cape – Rhys West bought himself a new putter after the first round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final and it paid off as he led by the end of Friday’s second round at the Pezula Championship Course.

West followed up his opening 69 with a 66 to lead the field on nine under par. He heads into the weekend with a one-stroke lead over Neil Schietekat and Stuart Krog. Schietekat signed for a 71 on Friday while Krog added a 68.

Rupert Kaminski kept himself in contention with a 71 to head into the final 36 holes on seven under par. And a record three Sunshine Ladies Tour professional also made it through to the weekend in what has been a first in the history of this series where they have competed alongside the Sunshine Tour professionals in the same event for the same prize money.

With the wind gusts always a challenge at Pezula, West relied heavily on his short game on Friday – more specifically his putting.

“I bought another putter the day before. It’s the same putter as my old one. The shaft on my old putter was bent and we couldn’t fix it, so I just decided to buy a new one and the feel just started coming back,” said West, who started his round at the 10^th and was already five under at the turn before he added three birdies and two bogeys on his second nine.

“I think the big thing is confidence. I’ve had a couple of good finishes and it’s just helped with confidence. I haven’t changed anything drastically in my game. It’s just short game and confidence,” he said.

It’s a recipe he’s hoping to keep sticking to over the weekend.

“It’s all weather dependent really. I can’t really push too hard or overpower a golf course. It’s just about thinking my way around and keeping my course management together. I’ll just keep playing the course the way it’s being presented.”

Zethu Myeki is the leading Sunshine Ladies Tour professional heading into the weekend. Myeki signed for a 68 on Friday that lifted her to five under par overall. Tara Griebenow and Brittney-Fay Berger also made it through to the weekend. Griebenow signed for a second round of 75 for a 36-hole total of one under par, while Berger added a 74 that places her on one over par, with the cut falling on two over. – Michael Vlismas

Rolex Series champions Ryan Fox and Victor Perez are amongst a host of DP World Tour stars ready to tee it up at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, as the field is set for the latest edition of ‘Africa’s Major’ from November 9-12.

Frenchman Perez, who triumphed in the first Rolex Series event of the year at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, and Kiwi Fox, winner of the prestigious BMW PGA Championship, will join defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, Major winners Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari and Justin Thomas, and Ryder Cup stars Max Homa, Nicolai Højgaard and Robert MacIntyre in the field at Sun City’s Gary Player Country Club.

The US$6,000,000 event will welcome a 66-player field including over 40 proven DP World Tour winners, and carries an increased number of Race to Dubai Ranking Points as the penultimate tournament on the 2023 DP World Tour schedule, ahead of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

Poland’s Adrian Meronk, who won for the third time on the 2023 Race to Dubai at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters two weeks ago, will go into the Nedbank Golf Challenge as the highest ranked player on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex in third place, narrowly ahead of Fox and Perez, who currently sit fourth and fifth.

Last week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters winner Sami Välimäki and runner-up Jorge Campillo will join two-time DP World Tour winner Vincent Norrman and Cazoo Open de France champion Ryo Hisatsune in Sun City, as well as Danish duo Thorbjørn Olesen and Rasmus Højgaard, both winners in 2023.

Germany’s Marcel Siem ended an emotional eight-year wait for a DP World Tour victory at the Hero Indian Open in February and he will be one of five Germans teeing it up in Sun City. Yannik Paul, Hurly Long and Maximillian Kieffer complete the German quintet alongside Nick Bachem, who is one of five DP World Tour players to have tasted success on South African soil so far in the 2023 season.

Bachem secured his maiden DP World Tour title at the Jonsson Workwear Open in March, the week after England’s Matt Baldwin won for the first time at the SDC Championship, with both players joining Joburg Open champion Dan Bradbury in the winner’s circle.

Thriston Lawrence, the Investec South African Open Championship winner, and Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy winner Ockie Strydom, who triumphed at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, will fly the flag for the home nation in Sun City, joining Zander Lombard, Louis de Jager, Branden Grace and Hennie du Plessis.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge has been a highlight of the South African sporting calendar since its first edition in 1981, with two-time winner Fleetwood among a glittering list of winners including South African golfing icon Ernie Els – a three-time winner of the event – the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and Major Champions Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sir Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Danny Willett.

The 2023 Nedbank Golf Challenge is once again included on the DP World Tour schedule in partnership with Nedbank and Sun International.

KNYSNA, Western Cape – Jared Harvey took advantage of the good fortune that came his way in Thursday’s first round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final and opened with an eight-under-par 64 at the Pezula Championship Course to lead the field.

Harvey capitalised on an early start which saw him avoid the wind for most of his round and then enjoyed a bit more luck with his eagle two on the 17^th as he finished the opening day one shot clear of Neil Schietekat, who produced a scintillating back nine of six birdies. Rupert Kaminski and Oliver Bekker are next best on six under par.

Tara Griebenow leads the charge of the Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals with her opening round of four under par. A selection of the Sunshine Ladies Tour golfers are competing alongside the Sunshine Tour professionals for the same amount of prize money for the first time in the history of this series.

Harvey certainly took advantage of his favourable draw and his experience of a Pezula course which he played quite a few times in his days a member of the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation in nearby George.

“I lived in for George for a bit and we played a few amateur tournaments here. So I know the course even though we haven’t been back here for a while with the Tour. My game has also been there or thereabouts and I felt I was just lacking a spark. Today it arrived,” said Harvey.

“It was a little fortunate that I was off very early. For the first eight to 10 holes there was no breeze at all. I thought I could get off to a hot start and use the opportunity. I kind of felt that this was the kind of morning where if you’re on your game you can make birdies and get going.”

If there was a sense that this was his day then it was confirmed with his eagle on the 17^th.

“It’s a funny story actually. On the second day of the pro-am, that was the hole we started on with the shotgun start. I’ve got a trusty old two iron that’s like my baby. So yesterday I had a go for the green and the head of the club flew right off and it went into the fynbos in front of me. First hole of the pro-am. I managed to sort the club out and get it repaired. So when we got to 17 this morning I pulled out the same club hoping everything would stay intact, and I was very happy to see I’d hit the green and it was close to the flag.”

Harvey has shown quite an affinity for the Vodacom Origins of Golf series over the years. He won on the series in 2017 and has also had a further three top fives on the series.

“I’ve also just felt the Vodacom Origins series gives you the opportunity to play a run of tournaments in our winter and you can build a bit of momentum. A lot of the locations on the series have also suited my game, with a few of them always played on the coast. I think in general it has treated me well.” – Michael Vlismas

KNYSNA, Western Cape – The 12-year-old girl who was part of the South African Golf Development Board (SAGDB) children and the Sunshine Tour professionals at Wednesday’s Vodacom Origins of Golf clinic on the Pezula Championship Course did what she always does when she receives her food parcel. She put it aside, to take home to her family.

It didn’t surprise Johan Erasmus, the SAGDB Development Manager for the Southern Cape who has worked in the grassroots growth of the game for 20 years, and which the Vodacom Origins of Golf series has also supported for the same amount of time through clinics such as this.

“She does that with all the food parcels we hand out. She takes it back home to her brother,” he said.

It was another powerful reminder of what the partnership between the Vodacom Origins of Golf series, the Sunshine Tour and the SAGDB has meant to children who by society’s standards should have no future, but who through golf can still have hope.

“These kids come from difficult situations where golf can really change their lives. When some of our kids join the programme and get to a golf club, for many it’s the first time they’ve ever seen a bathroom. When they travel with us to tournaments, it’s the first time some of them have ever slept in a proper bed,” said Erasmus.

“I love seeing what golf can do for the kids. It goes far beyond hitting a golf club. We always say that if we work with one thousand children, maybe one will become a professional golfer one day. But the values and lessons they learn in golf they can take back to their communities, and that’s our real success. If we can change one child’s life and start a chain reaction that changes a community, then we’ve achieved something.”

It’s a vision that aligns perfectly with Vodacom’s own commitment to hold an SAGDB golf clinic at every single Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament around the country.

“It’s about creating hope for these children to see that if they follow this path they can get themselves out of their situations,” said Martha Lamola, acting CEO of Vodacom Business.

“They might not all be professional golfers one day, but this gives them that hope to realise, ‘I can also be somebody’. Our communities are challenged, and anywhere where we can shine a light is the biggest thing we can do for them.”

It’s also exactly what keeps driving Erasmus and his team.

“If we have a tournament in Knysna or Plettenberg Bay, then we leave home at 3am and start picking up the kids along the way. It’s all worth it when you see how much they enjoy the game. A day like this with Vodacom and the Sunshine Tour is a day when they are away from the reality of their difficult circumstances, and they have an opportunity to change their lives.”

It was exactly such an opportunity that changed the life of Franklin Manchest who came through this very programme on his journey to now competing on the Sunshine Tour.

“Franklin grew up in a house just behind the home of one of our coaches, and he saw our coach chipping golf balls. That’s how he became interested in the game. Now Franklin is playing on the Sunshine Tour. If you look at where Franklin grew up, he wouldn’t have had that opportunity to make it in life if it wasn’t for golf.”

This week’s tournament is the final on this year’s Vodacom Origins of Golf series, with the Sunshine Tour professionals competing from Thursday to Sunday on the Pezula Championship Course. – Michael Vlismas

The 2023 Joburg Open will tee off an historic international season on the Sunshine Tour as the tournament celebrates the start of the DP World Tour’s new Opening Swing to its global season with a world-class field and a host of added incentives on offer.

The Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament will take place at Houghton Golf Club from 23-26 November with a field already including former Joburg Open champions Thriston Lawrence and Branden Grace as well as Dean Burmester, Christian Bezuidenhout and a selection of the leading professionals from the DP World Tour.

There will be several added incentives for the professionals this year including a share of a sizeable cash bonus pool on the Opening Swing and the opportunity to possibly play their way onto the DP World Tour and ultimately the PGA Tour.

Since 2007 the Joburg Open has been a leading tournament on the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour calendars with a proud record of creating opportunities for young professionals to take their careers onto the global stage, and supporting the transformational drive of South African golf through exemptions into the tournament for members of the Sunshine Tour’s Papwa Sewgolum Class for historically disadvantaged professionals or invitations for leading GolfRSA amateurs to gain competitive exposure.

The 2023 Joburg Open will be the first to tee off the DP World Tour’s new globally restructured season as it ushers in an Opening Swing that will run from November to December this year. This swing will have its own Order of Merit, and the leading professional at the conclusion of this will earn an extra $200 000 and, if already a member of the DP World Tour, an invitation into the Hero Dubai Desert Classic – a Rolex Series tournament – and a spot in each of the DP World Tour’s ‘Back Nine’ series of nine lucrative tournaments towards the end of the season from August to October 2024.

The value of a strong start to the season in the Joburg Open translates into possibly finishing within the top 110 players on the Race to Dubai Rankings at the conclusion of the ‘Back Nine’ to earn a DP World Tour card for 2025, while the top 70 also qualify for the DP World Tour Play-Offs where the top 10 will earn their PGA Tour cards (if not already members) for the following season, as well as compete for a share of a $6 million bonus pool.

“The Joburg Open has always sought to mirror the ambitions of the City of Joburg’s residents and create an aspirational effect amongst our residents. This year’s Joburg Open epitomises this spirit of opportunity,” said Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda.

“We know that golf courses are where business deals are struck. So, we believe that this is the place where we are going to talk about how we are going to build, repair, and grow the City as well as attract investment.

“Johannesburg is a world-class African city and the Joburg Open reflects this through its status in world golf as an event that creates opportunities at the highest level and which can transform lives. This is the kind of sporting excellence we are proud to be associated with, and equally so with organisations as globally respected as the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour.”

Thomas Abt, the Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, said: “We are excited to welcome back some of our leading professionals for the Joburg Open and the start of an exciting international season on the Sunshine Tour.”

“The months of November and December on the Sunshine Tour represent an incredible opportunity for our Sunshine Tour members, starting with the Joburg Open. It really is quite possible that one of our members can perform well on this Opening Swing and set up a season that could see him earn a PGA Tour card by the end of it. That’s the power of the global pathway we’ve worked hard to create with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.”

Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour’s Chief Executive, said: “We have a longstanding history with the Sunshine Tour, and the Joburg Open is a terrific example of how that strategic partnership continues to benefit members of both Tours through increased playing opportunities and pathways.”

“It is the first of six events on our 2024 schedule which are co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour, and it is also one of two events which will launch both our 2024 Race to Dubai and our inaugural Opening Swing. There will therefore be even more for players to compete for in this year’s edition of the Joburg Open.”

Tickets for the Joburg Open are available at www.sunshinetour.com