Author: Michael Vlismas

JOHANNESBURG –  Englishman Dan Bradbury took full advantage of a sponsor’s invitation and led the suspended first round of the Joburg Open with an eight-under-par 63 at Houghton Golf Club on Thursday. But South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence managed to take some of the spotlight with an historic first for South African professional golf.

Bradbury, who was given the news last Friday that he had an invitation into this tournament, made it into the clubhouse with a round featuring two eagles before the second suspension of the day due to lightning. It earned him a one-stroke clubhouse lead over Germany’s Nick Bachem. The first round will resume at 6:45am on Friday, with the second round scheduled to start at 7:15am.

“It was pretty good to be fair. I can’t really complain. I had some momentum on my second nine and then the first thunderstorm stopped that. But I can’t really complain with a 63. It’s as good a start as I could’ve wished for,” said Bradbury.

Defending champion Lawrence grabbed his own share of the headlines when it was announced that he had won the DP World Tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award for his two victories – one of which was the Joburg Open last November –, six top-10s and a Major debut this past season. He is the first South African golfer to ever receive this award.

Lawrence celebrated that achievement with an opening five-under-par 66 to place him just three shots off the clubhouse lead.

“It’s a dream come true,” Lawrence said of his award. “If you look at the names on the trophy, it’s incredible. A year ago I didn’t even have a category, so when I started off with a victory, it came to mind straight away to go for this award. To have accomplished it is an incredible feeling – I’m very grateful and honoured.”

Bradbury was equally grateful to have received an invitation into this tournament, and to make his first trip to South Africa.

“I got the phonecall on Friday afternoon so this past weekend was just about getting out here and seeing what I could do. My mom (Sandra) is with me as well so it’s nice to have a bit of company. I’m loving it out here. I got nice and sunburnt yesterday – made that mistake.”

And he was also loving his first experience of golf at altitude.

“This is my first time playing at altitude. I’ve had a local caddie who’s been great helping me get used to it. The ball’s going miles here. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. Both eagles (on the par-five third and fifth holes) were great drives and I had nine irons into both. If you can hit it straight off the tee on those it’s key because they’re not the longest holes. I also rolled in a lot of nice mid-range putts.”

The Joburg Open teed off at Houghton Golf Club on Thursday, with the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Mpho Phalatse, hitting the ceremonial tee shot to signal the start of this DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned tournament at Houghton Golf Club.

“We’re very excited to welcome the global viewership of this tournament and to be able to showcase our beautiful City of Johannesburg,” said Phalatse.

“Golf is a much loved sport in Johannesburg. We have an array of beautiful golf courses in the City and the sport forms a vital part of our tourism. We are the economic hub of the country, and international events like this are part of our drive to grow the City and attract investment.”

The Joburg Open signals the start of the DP World Tour’s new season and also forms part of the Open Qualifying Series for The Open.

JOHANNESBURG – It was while Thriston Lawrence was warming up on a driving range in St Andrews for his first Major in The 150^th Open only a few metres away from Tiger Woods that he realised just how much his life had changed since winning the Joburg Open in November last year.

“Everything I could’ve dreamed of happened this year and that motivates me to achieve even more in my career,” said Lawrence.

The South African’s victory in last November’s Joburg Open was his first on the DP World Tour, and it led to another title in the 2022 Omega European Masters, his first Major appearance this year, and finishing as the top South African on the DP World Tour Rankings in 14^th place for the past season.

Driving into Houghton Golf Club this week, the tournament banner with Lawrence’s photo on it as defending champion was another reminder of just how big this week was for him.

“Driving into Houghton Golf Club and seeing the signage with my photo and the trophy, you dream about those things when you’re a young golfer. A year ago I never thought this would happen. This event is where my dreams came true. It’s obviously not all the dreams I want to achieve, but it’s the start. It motivates you because if you see that once you want to be there again. I want to defend my title as best as I can this week.”

The Joburg Open will once again provide incredible opportunity, with three places in The 151^st Open at Royal Liverpool available this week. The leading three players, not already exempt as of the closing date, who make the cut at the Joburg Open will earn places in The Open from 16-23 July 2023. In the event of a qualifier becoming exempt before the closing date (Thursday, 1 June 2023), a reserve list from each Open Qualifying Series (OQS) will be created, based on the final positions. In the event of a tie for a qualifying place, the player with the higher ranking in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) at the beginning of the week commencing 21 November will be awarded a place in The Open.

Lawrence can certainly attest to the value of this kind of opportunity.

“To play my first Major at St Andrews, the Home of Golf, was incredible. Whatever I could’ve imagined it would be, it was triple that when I experienced it. I had my family with me and it was just incredible.”

While much has changed in Lawrence’s life this past year, he is determined not to change the one thing that enabled him to reach these highs, and which he hopes to carry with him into this new season.

“The most important thing for me is just to keep on doing what I did last season. A lot of golfers tend to want to change things. You obviously need to process what went wrong last season and improve on that. But I feel if you keep it simple and keep to what worked, I think it can only go well. It’s a new week and new goals, and I’ll just keep on working hard and giving it my best.”

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

The Sunshine Tour has strengthened its global partnership with the DP World Tour with the announcement of two new DP World Tour events and four Challenge Tour events on the schedule in 2023, with increased prize money and live coverage on SuperSport.

The two new DP World Tour events will begin with the $1.5 million SDC Championship to be played at St Francis Links in the Eastern Cape from 16-19 March. SDC has grown its commitment to the Sunshine Tour following its debut as a sponsor of a Challenge Tour co-sanctioned event in 2022 and will now be a title partner of events on both the DP World Tour and Challenge Tour schedules in South Africa in 2023.

This will be followed by the $1.5 million Jonsson Workwear Open, which will be played at Steyn City in Johannesburg from 23-26 March. Jonsson Workwear has also grown its commitment to the Sunshine Tour from a Challenge Tour event in 2022 to a major DP World Tour event in 2023. This also marks the second year that Steyn City will host a DP World Tour event.

Both these tournaments will take on even greater significance on the global stage as they offer Ryder Cup points to the European professionals competing in a Ryder Cup year. They join this week’s Joburg Open at Houghton Golf Club, the Investec South African Open Championship (December 1-4), the Alfred Dunhill Championship (December 8-11) and the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (December 15-18) to make it six co-sanctioned events between the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour on the latter’s 2023 Race to Dubai presented by Rolex. 

“We are delighted to further strengthen our longstanding relationship with the Sunshine Tour by adding these two new co-sanctioned tournaments that significantly enhance what has always been a popular destination for our members. We have worked very hard with the Sunshine Tour to develop the global pathway that we now offer and we’re seeing the fruits of this with the exciting new talent emerging from the Sunshine Tour and earning a place on the DP World Tour,” said Keith Pelley, Chief Executive Officer of the DP World Tour.

The Sunshine Tour will also host its own R2 million tournament before the start of the two new DP World Tour events from 9-12 March purely for Sunshine Tour members, the details of which will be announced shortly.

The four Challenge Tour events that have been confirmed for 2023 all feature significant increases in prize money and each with a field of 156 professionals.

The Challenge Tour swing in South Africa will start with the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open from 2-5 February at Royal Cape Golf Club, where JC Ritchie won the last two editions of an event that helped him to gain his DP World Tour card for this season. The prize money for this tournament has been increased to $350 000.

The Challenge Tour will then travel to Fancourt for the popular Dimension Data Pro-Am from 9-12 February where the prize money has been significantly increased to R7 million – with an additional R300 000 for the pro-am component of the tournament. Since 1996 the Dimension Data Pro-Am has been one of the flagship events on the Sunshine Tour, and in the last three years alone it has helped shape the international careers of champions Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Wilco Nienaber.

It then moves inland for the second SDC Open from 16-19 February at Zebula Golf Estate and Spa, featuring prize money of $350 000. This will be followed by the new $350 000 Nelson Mandela Bay Championship at the links of Humewood Golf Club from 23-26 February, which brings international golf back to one of South Africa’s celebrated courses and a five-time host of the Investec South African Open Championship.

“These events provide our members with valuable playing opportunities at a time of the year when it is difficult to stage events in Europe and I am pleased that through our ever-evolving relationship with the Sunshine Tour we are able to begin our season in South Africa for the fourth year running,” said Jamie Hodges, Head of Challenge Tour.

“We have listened to feedback from our members and worked closely with Thomas Abt and his team to identify the correct events to co-sanction and we are therefore excited to start the 2023 Road to Mallorca season in Cape Town in February.”

Following the four -co-sanctioned events with the Challenge Tour, the current Sunshine Tour season will conclude with the Limpopo Championship from 30 March to 2 April at Euphoria Golf Estate with an increased prize fund of R2 million, the R2 million Stella Artois Players Championship from 13-16 April at Dainfern Golf Estate, and the R2 million Tour Championship at Serengeti Estates from 20-23 April.

Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, said, “We are incredibly excited about what will be another very strong start to the New Year for the Sunshine Tour as we continue to develop and strengthen our relationships with the DP World Tour and Challenge Tour. These relationships play a key role in allowing us to give our members the best possible opportunity to take their careers to the next level as we bring more world-class international golf to our fairways.”

The DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour last year announced a significant extension to their existing long-term partnership which has already spanned more than a quarter of a century.

JOHANNESBURG – A new host golf course brings with it a new challenge for this week’s Joburg Open field, and the leading professionals in this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament are excited about what they’ve seen from Houghton Golf Club so far.

After a first look at the course in Tuesday’s pro-am, most of the field agreed that accuracy off the tee and a good short game will be key to success this week when the first round tees off on Thursday.

“The rough is not up this week so I think the scoring will be low, but the greens are pretty slopy so missing on the wrong side of the hole will result in sloppy bogeys. You also need to keep it in play off the tee. The fairways are narrow and tree lined so I feel if you can drive the ball well this week you’ll give yourself lots of chances,” said Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who is looking to add the Joburg Open to his already impressive list of victories in co-sanctioned tournaments on South African fairways.

“The Joburg Open has always been a tournament that I would like to win. I’ve come close a few times and it would be nice to tick this one off.”

Richard Sterne, a two-time winner of the Joburg Open in 2008 and 2013, agrees that the Houghton Golf Club greens will play a big role in deciding this week’s champion.

“There are a couple of tough par fours out here, and the greens are where they’ll tuck the flags and make it tricky. The course is in lovely condition and there isn’t much rough, so it will come down to what you do around the greens and being able to score with the putter.”

George Coetzee, the 2014 Joburg Open champion and a two-time winner on the Sunshine Tour this year, has his focus on a strong game off the tee.

“It’s my first experience of Houghton Golf Club. The golf course looks great and I think everybody will be pretty happy with it this week. You have to shape your shots off the tee pretty well. I’d say your seven iron to wedge game needs to be pretty good around here, and then obviously controlling it on the greens and making a few putts. It’s kind of the same story every week, but I feel this week in particular is going to place greater emphasis on shaping it off the tee and having good control around the greens.”

It was a feeling shared by Shaun Norris, who in March this year made his DP World Tour breakthrough with victory in the Steyn City Championship. “I’d love to add a second DP World Tour title this year. On this golf course, you’ll have to hit the ball well off the tee and then putt well,” he said.

Dylan Naidoo, who has a long history in the Joburg Open as first an invited amateur and now a professional, is equally excited about the new challenge Houghton Golf Club will pose.

“This tournament means a lot to me. I’ve been playing it since I was 16 years old and I’ve really wanted to play better than I have in the past, so I’m excited by a new golf course and a new test. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a great golf course. I played a lot here growing up. I think the scoring will depend on the weather. If it’s windy and cold and wet it’s not going to be that easy. If the sun shines and there isn’t a lot of wind the scoring will be low. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. But you just have to look at the task in front of you, play the shots, execute the plan, and then you look up and see where you are on the leaderboard.”

And Haydn Porteous is hoping a return to Johannesburg and a tournament he won in 2016 will spark something special in his own game.

“I’m enjoying being home. It’s been a couple of tough seasons for me and to be home and play on familiar ground is nice and hopefully I can get a bit of confidence from that. I haven’t been here for a while but I think it’s a great golf course. There are a lot of tough holes out there but also some holes where you can take advantage. It should be a good week and I think it will be an enjoyable one for all concerned.”

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

Belgium’s Thomas Detry, one of the most exciting new stars on the PGA Tour, has confirmed his place in a quality field for the 2022 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Mont Choisy Le Golf from 15-18 December.

The 29-year-old Detry will join fellow PGA Tour campaigner Dean Burmester, DP World Tour champions George Coetzee, Brandon Stone and Antoine Rozner, Matthieu Pavon who finished second in this event in 2018, the big-hitting Wilco Nienaber, and former European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn.

Detry heads to Mauritius at the end of a strong year for the young professional in which he finished in the top-12 in three of the five PGA Tour events he played in his rookie season there – including second place in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship – and also had six top-15 finishes on the DP World Tour. He challenged for the title in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City before finishing tied 13^th.

This will be Detry’s second appearance in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open after he finished tied fourth in 2019, and he continues a tradition of young stars who had success in this tournament during their global rise in the game. The last two winners of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open – Rasmus Højgaard and Kurt Kitayama – have both been at the forefront of the new generation of professionals on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.

The 2022 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open returns to the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour schedules for the first time since 2019 following the Covid-19 pandemic and has drawn a glittering array of blue-chip sponsors including Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, Mont Choisy Group, Jaguar, Rogers, Heritage Resorts, IBL, the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA), 3G Mobile, Phoenix Beverages, Air Mauritius, Mautourco, Fenix XCell Apparel, Hertz, Jacobs, C-Care, Emtel and PRO CARTS.

SUN CITY, North West – At the foot of the great elephant Shawu in The Palace of the Lost City stood a great South African. Gary Player held back the tears as he thanked a gathering of Sunshine Tour professionals, sports stars, business leaders and friends for the role they have played in the inaugural Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational and for the over R3 million raised for charity.

The longstanding tournament entered a new era this year under the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation and its drive to raise funds to ensure the financial sustainability of the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School that the Players started on their farm over three decades ago.

It is a journey of golf and giving that Player and his wife Vivienne began together many years ago, and one he now continues on his own with a dedicated team following her passing from cancer last year.

At the age of 87, Player remains as committed as ever to ensure that his legacy is more than just his greatness in golf.

“I was blessed to hold my wife in my arms when she passed. Some of her last words to me were, ‘Gary, don’t forget those kids at Blair Atholl’. I had so many wonderful years with Vivienne and I left the table having had a feast. My own life has been an epic journey. All of us will have adversity in our lives, and if you can overcome it with courage, patience and love you will prosper in the end. When people ask me, ‘What is your legacy?’, they all think it’s golf. My legacy is not golf. It’s that through golf and through our foundation, we’ve raised over $100 million for underprivileged people. That is my legacy,” said Player.

The 36-hole tournament came to a close at the Lost City Golf Course on Sunday and was won on a count-out by the team of Sunshine Tour professional Brooklin Bailey, former Bafana Bafana star Mark Fish and businessmen Anthony Phillips and Ashok Pundit on a total of 187 points.

“It’s been a dream of mine to get trophies handed to me from the greats in the game. It’s just so special to be handed a trophy from one of the greats such as Gary Player. He’s an absolute legend and he’s done so much for golf and through his philanthropy. It was a truly special experience,” said Bailey.

Photo (from left to right): Mark Fish, Brooklin Bailey, Gary Player, Anthony Phillips and Ashok Pundit celebrate their victory in the Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational.

SUN CITY, North West – Sunshine Tour professional Jared Harvey said that when he saw the signage for the Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational on the first tee box of the Lost City Golf Course on Saturday, it really hit home that he was playing for something bigger this weekend.

Harvey is one of a number of Sunshine Tour professionals who are competing alongside sports stars and business leaders in this weekend’s tournament in aid of raising funds for the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School that the Players started on their farm over three decades ago, and which forms a key part of the legacy of the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation.

And the privilege Harvey says he felt in being a part of this charity drive was enhanced by his fourball team leading the first round of this 36-hole tournament.

Harvey and his team of former Springbok rugby star Patrick Lambie and business leaders Stuart Morris and Elizabeth Horn topped the leaderboard on a total of 25 under par.

“It’s an absolute privilege to be here. I stepped onto the first tee and saw the signage and it sunk in that I’m definitely part of something special. It’s great to be here. Gary Player is a very special man,” said Harvey.

Harvey was also highly impressed with Lambie’s performance.

“Pat is off an 11 handicap and I saw a couple of swings out there today that I would’ve been proud of. I think we had a good blend of handicaps in our team and we dovetailed really well.”

Second place is currently shared by the teams of Sunshine Tour professional Neil Schietekat, former Proteas cricketer Vernon Philander, and business leaders Pamela and Neil Senior; and Sunshine Tour professional Louis Albertse, former Bafana Bafana star Mark Williams, and business leaders Iwan Swiegers and Marius Reitz on 22 under par.

The Sunshine Tour has announced that CIB (Pty) Ltd (“CIB”), a leader in the provision of specialised insurance solutions in the South African market, is the new official insurance partner for the Tour.

The partnership will see CIB provide specialist commercial insurance for all Sunshine Tour business assets, as well as the TaylorMade golf clubs of the historically disadvantaged professionals who are part of the Papwa Sewgolum Class.

CIB will also cover the hole-in-one insurance on the Sunshine Tour at all DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournaments this season and has further extended its commitment to professional golf as an event sponsor of the Investec South African Open Championship.

“We are delighted to partner with the Sunshine Tour in providing high quality insurance cover for the organisation and giving them the peace of mind that our products offer,” said Jon-Jon Smit, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing.

“Professional sport is an environment reliant upon its competitors being able to perform freely at the highest level and to their fullest potential. As a business we are passionate about creating personalised, bespoke solutions that allow our clients to pursue their passion and realise their goals. We specialise in the commercial/business insurance market and have a wide network of trusted brokers that we know have our clients’ best interests at heart.”

Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, said, “It is a great pleasure to welcome CIB into the Sunshine Tour family. A high-quality insurance partner who understands our business and is well-placed to manage this is vital in terms of allowing us to focus on our golfers and their journey to greatness. I also want to thank CIB for extending their cover to the historically disadvantaged professionals in our Papwa Sewgolum Class, who are often the most vulnerable and at-risk individuals. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with CIB.”