ST FRANCIS BAY (Eastern Cape) – South Africa’s leading DP World Tour stars will return to local fairways at the end of this month as the Eastern Cape is treated to a showcase of professional golf with the second edition of the SDC Championship at St Francis Links, co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour.
The $1.5-million tournament has drawn a strong South African challenge including Zander Lombard, Thriston Lawrence, Darren Fichardt, Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis.
All five golfers are currently ranked within the top 50 on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai Rankings and will relish the opportunity to drive home their advantage on local fairways.
Lombard and Lawrence in particular have both been pushing for a victory early in this year already.
Lombard returns to home fairways with recent finishes of tied second in the Bahrain Championship presented by Bapco Energies and tied sixth in the Dubai Invitational on the DP World Tour.
Lawrence has been in equally good form this year and came close to adding a fifth DP World Tour when he finished second in the Dubai Invitational. He also finished in a share of 14th place in last year’s SDC Championship.
The SDC Championship forms a large part of Lawrence’s goals for this year as he looks to break into the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking and secure himself a place in every Major in 2024, as well as push for a place in The Presidents Cup and South Africa’s Olympic golf team.
Jarvis, one of South Africa’s rising young stars on the DP World Tour, is looking forward to returning to a golf course he rates highly and where he finished second in the 2022 South African PGA Championship.
“I think it’s one of the best golf courses in the country. It’s just a really good golf course, and a challenging one in the wind. It’s quite soft around the greens so doesn’t play like a true links, but the overall layout is just really really good.” – Michael Vlismas
