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Jaco Prinsloo won on the third hole of a three-way playoff in a frantic final-round chase to Players Championship glory at Dainfern Golf Estate on Sunday.

On a day not for the faint-hearted as the final groups attacked the leaderboard with red numbers, Jaco Prinsloo, Jake Roos and Daniel van Tonder all finished regulation play tied for the lead on 25 under.

Playing the par-five 18^th again, both Prinsloo and Van Tonder eagled the hole as Roos fell out. That took the two of them back to 18. Prinsloo showed absolute nerves of steel as his second found the greenside bunker, and he then pitched out to within three feet to make birdie. Van Tonder matched him with a birdie of his own, taking them back to 18 again.

Van Tonder pulled his drive, but then produced an incredible shot from the left rough to just short of the green. He chipped to about six feet, but missed his birdie putt. That left Prinsloo to hole his two-foot putt for birdie and his second Sunshine Tour victory.

“The playoff was almost the easier part. Just getting there was more nerve-wracking,” said a relieved Prinsloo.

“Jake, Daniel and myself are all good friends, and luckily today I came out on top. To get this title is very special. I have to thank the Sunshine Tour for making this tournament possible. I love this golf course and the whole atmosphere here.”

It was hardly surprising that four incredible days of low-scoring golf should end in a playoff for this Sunshine Tour event.

The leading players never relented on the final day as they kept building on the lead with a slew of birdies. And the closing holes again provided the opportunities.

Roos birdied two of the final three holes for a 63 and to set the clubhouse target at 25 under par. Van Tonder then eagled the par-five 18^th for the second day in succession to join him on 25 under with a final round of 65. And Prinsloo had the greatest opportunity of all as he stood over an eagle putt on 18 to win outright. But the miss and resultant birdie earned him a 65 and the final place in the three-way playoff.

Thriston Lawrence closed with the low round of the week, a brilliant 62 that saw him birdie six of the last seven holes. He finished tied fourth on 22 under par alongside Jean Hugo.

The Sunshine Tour remains in Gauteng this week for the R1-million Gauteng Championship presented by Betway at the Ebotse Links. – Michael Vlismas

Photos: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

Daniel van Tonder finished birdie-eagle for a back nine of 29 and a 63 that shot him into a three-way tie for the lead going into Sunday’s final round of the Sunshine Tour’s Players Championship at Dainfern Golf Estate.

Van Tonder led another day of low scoring that finished with him on 18 under par. Jaco Prinsloo joined him there with a 66 after lipping out for an eagle on the last that would’ve given him the sole lead. And Oliver Bekker completed the trio with his bogey-free 67.

They are two strokes clear of Jacques Kruyswijk and Jake Roos.

But with the kind of scoring this tournament has seen – including a halfway cut of six under par – the three leaders are all in agreement that there is no holding back on the final day.

“This course isn’t that long so most of the holes are birdie holes. But saying that, you’ve still got to hit the fairways here because the rough is thick,” said Van Tonder, who has been in great form since the Tour resumed last August following the lockdown. He won four times in 2020, including three of the five tournaments on the Sunshine Tour’s Rise-Up Series last year.

“It’s going to feel like a shoot-out on the final day,” added Bekker. “You can’t play defensively because every hole is an opportunity to score. In the third round I just didn’t really capitalise on the front nine, and then finally made something happen on the back nine.”

The feeling was shared by Prinsloo.

“This course gives you the opportunities. I think it will help if you can get off to a fast start in the final round and try and keep the rest of the field at bay, but having said that, it usually comes down to the final few holes on the back nine.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

Jake Roos says he is at the stage of his career when it’s a case of “Go big or go home”. After rounds of 65 and 63 to lead the Sunshine Tour’s Players Championship by three strokes going into the weekend at Dainfern Golf Estate, he’s clearly going big.

For the second day in succession Roos played bogey-free golf and he tops the leaderboard on 16 under par with 36 holes remaining.

Oliver Bekker is his nearest challenger on 13 under following a second round of 66, while Jean Hugo and Jaco Prinsloo are both next best on 12 under following respective second rounds of 64 and 67.

On Friday, Roos gave himself some much-needed distance at the top of a previously cluttered leaderboard. And a new grip, new putter and new mindset are all working in Roos’s favour on a course that is rewarding aggressive play.

“I’m at the stage in my career where it’s kind of go big or go home now. In a sense that frees you up and you can just go for the shots out there and not think about it too much,” said the six-time Sunshine Tour winner.

“I’m quite surprised that the scores are this good. It shows that everybody has been practising hard in the lockdown. For me it’s been a nice two days. The first round was solid and it’s not always easy to follow that up. But I felt good again and just managed to keep it flowing. It’s been a combination of things I think. I’ve changed my grip a bit and weakened my right hand. I’ve also changed my putter. It’s all helped. I’m very pleased,” said Roos.

And he’s determined not to take his eye off the ball this weekend.

“I’ll just keep going. I’ve got some good players behind me. There’s lots of talent on this Tour, and on this kind of course everybody is going to make a lot of birdies. So I’ll just try and keep going.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

Ulrich van den Berg turned back the clock and signed for a bogey-free round of eight-under-par 64 to share the first-round lead with Jared Harvey in the Sunshine Tour’s Players Championship at Dainfern Golf Estate on Thursday.

They are one stroke clear of Jacques Blaauw, Ruan Conradie, Jaco Prinsloo, Steve Surry, Jake Roos, Oliver Bekker, James Kingston and Roberto Lupini who all opened with rounds of 65.

It was an opening day of aggressive scoring on a golf course suited to that game, and Van Den Berg certainly took advantage to put himself back at the top of a Sunshine Tour leaderboard for the first time in a while.

Van Den Berg followed a decorated amateur career with seven victories on the Sunshine Tour, his last coming in 2013. But a hip injury that eventually required surgery in 2019 kept him away from the game for all of that year, and he’s spent a large part of recent months working more than playing golf.

“By the time I had the hip operation in March 2019 I was very badly inhibited in terms of my swing,” said Van Den Berg.

“The hip op put me out for the rest of that year. But fortunately it was a successful operation. I am now playing pain-free golf for the first time in a while, and it feels amazing. It feels like I have a new lease on my career.”

Van Den Berg has certainly shown a welcome return to form of late. He finished second in the Betway Championship on the Sunshine Tour’s Rise-Up Series after the lockdown last year. He then had a share of fourth in the Vodacom Championship Unlocked on the same series.

The Johannesburg professional teed off the 10^th on Thursday and opened with a birdie. He added a further three birdies to the turn, and then came home with two birdies and an eagle.

“I’m thrilled with the round.It was just a really steady round of golf, and I putted very well. I’ve also had past success at Dainfern so the comfort level here is high for me. I’m just enjoying myself out there.”

In the group behind him, the 55-year-old Kingston is hoping to show up the younger players on Tour over the next three rounds.

And Conradie is certainly relishing the current run of tournaments on the Sunshine Tour. “It’s really nice to get that rhythm going where you are playing for a few weeks in a row, and then to get a low round like this in there. It’s just nice to get going again and find some normality,” he said.

By Michael Vlismas

Adilson da Silva belongs to a time in golf the likes of which we will probably never see again. A time when a young Brazilian boy from a humble family in Santa Cruz do Sol outside Rio collected golf balls and caddied for pocket money, and used a tree branch shaped like a golf club as his first bit of equipment in the game.

This week, in The Players Championship at Dainfern Golf Estate starting on Thursday, Da Silva will tee it up as a 49-year-old professional universally respected by his fellow pros for his humility, his 12 Sunshine Tour titles, and for being possibly the greatest gentleman in this gentleman’s game.

For Da Silva, it’s a journey built by some good fortune and a lot of hard work.

“Growing up it was very difficult in Brazil,” he says. “My parents didn’t have much. They did their best for us, but my father was a carpenter and my mother didn’t really have just one job. I have three brothers and one sister. We were a big family and my parents were under pressure. So if you wanted anything extra, you had to work for it yourself. After school I would go to the golf course to look for balls or caddie jobs. You lived and worked just for the next day, and it was hard. But once I came in contact with golf, things changed quite a bit for me.”

It was as a young caddie at the local golf course that Da Silva met Andrew Edmondson, a tobacco buyer from Zimbabwe who used to travel to Brazil for his work. Da Silva started out as Edmondson’s caddie, and then became his playing partner during a few rounds. And it was Edmondson who first spotted Da Silva’s talent and encouraged it.

Da Silva won the Brazil Amateur Championship in 1990 and 1991, and Edmondson convinced him to travel back to Zimbabwe with him where he could receive proper coaching.

“I was really fortunate to get that opportunity. In Brazil in those days, it was almost impossible to get into golf if you didn’t have money. You had to buy what we called a title at a golf club. Golf in Brazil in those days was a very closed society. So I was very fortunate to get a chance to move away from there and do something in this incredible game.”

And he didn’t waste any time either.

Da Silva won the Zimbabwe Amateur in 1992 as well as a bunch of other tournaments, then turned professional in 1994 and was already winning qualifying tournaments on the winter leg of the Sunshine Tour in his rookie year. In 1997 he made his breakthrough, winning the Leopard Rock Classic by four strokes with rounds of 64, 69 and 66. A year later he added his second title, the Nashua Wild Coast Sun Challenge. His most recent victory was on the Asian Tour in the 2018 Taiwan Masters.

“It’s been such an experience for me,” says Da Silva as he reflects on a journey on the Sunshine Tour where he’s witnessed some of the biggest stars develop their games. And last weekend in the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am, he played with another which he believes could be just as big.

“I played the final round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am with Wilco Nienaber. On the final green I just had to tell him what a privilege it was to play with him. You just don’t get to see that kind of talent every day. I once played a tournament in Malaysia with a long drive champion, and I told Wilco he’s in a league of his own with his long drives. I watched him hit that first drive on the first tee and I could hardly see the ball coming off the clubhead it was so fast. And he just nailed it 380 metres down the middle of the fairway. Already at this age he has everything, and I think he’s going to be unbeatable.”

But Da Silva says he’s become used to seeing this kind of talent on the Sunshine Tour.

“It’s just insane how good the golfers are here. It’s amazing the golf talent in this country. For me to be here and still playing amongst this kind of talent just makes you better and makes you want to work harder on your own game.”

Such is Da Silva’s humility that he won’t even entertain the thought that it just might be a privilege for the young stars of today to be playing with him, considering the longevity of his career.

“Look, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done okay. But you look back and you think that maybe you could’ve done better. I wish in the past I had worked harder on my mental game, because this game is all mental. But I’m happy with myself. I enjoy practicing and getting better. If I could stay on the range for five or six hours a day I would because I enjoy it so much.”

But as a husband and father of three, Da Silva is very aware to not neglect that side of life he also enjoys.

“I’ve been on the road for over 25 years, and this period during lockdown and all of that is the longest time I’ve been at home. It’s been a pleasure actually. It’s not an easy life being on tour all the time. You can’t complain because it’s work and it’s a nice work to have. But it’s a lonely life at times.”

With one year to go until he becomes a senior, Da Silva has his sights set on the PGA Tour Champions.

But whatever he goes on to still achieve, one moment will forever remain possibly the greatest highlight of his career.

In 2016 when Brazil hosted the Olympics, Da Silva was selected to hit the first shot in the Olympic golf competition which marked the return of the game to the Olympic fold for the first time in over a century.

“That was insane. I was so nervous. I couldn’t sleep for three nights before. It still gives me goosebumps to have had that honour. I was very tense right up until a few seconds before I hit that ball. Then I got control of myself and just enjoyed it. I don’t know why they chose me. There were so many other great golfers that deserved it more than me.”

And yet if you know Da Silva, you’ll know the game couldn’t have had a greater gentleman to represent it at such an auspicious occasion. The boy from Brazil who took a tree branch and a golf ball, and went after his dream.

Photo Credit: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

By Jim McCabe

Memories easily fade in our mad-rush, 24 hours per day, seven days per week world. And when you factor in the numbing COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the globe for more than a year now, well, there’s not a lot of time that’s been saved for nostalgia.

Which is a shame when one considers the superb talents that were once in the possession of Tim Clark, but are now covered in cobwebs, a victim of unfortunate happenstance. Gutty as it was that Clark rose to PGA Tour prominence despite being born with a left arm that could not be extended (thus he could not supinate), his career deserves more than anniversary footnotes:

To wit:

The upcoming PLAYERS Championship will be the 10^th one competed since Clark posted a stirring come-from-behind victory in 2010. And it was just five years ago – the 2016 American Express in Palm Springs, California — when Clark played what might very well be his final PGA Tour tournament.

Surreal, such a consideration for a world-class ball-striker to not play beyond the age of 40. But that is sadly where Clark stands.

“With my back, I’m not playing any golf at all. I tried (more than a month ago), but it wasn’t good at all. I can chip and putt, but no full swings,” said Clark, 45, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife, Candice, and two children, Jack and Olivia.

“I cannot even play socially.”

So much of this could be digested and shaped into a pity for Clark, only the South African brushes that aside. Feeling blessed to have played at the highest level of professional golf for nearly 15 years, he won twice on the PGA Tour, piled up 54 top-10 finishes, competed in three Presidents Cups, and was a brilliantly straight driver of the golf ball who knew his limitations and never uttered a word of complaint.

“What I did with what I had, I’m very proud of,” said Clark. “Looking back, I was able to stay on Tour for as long as I was and to be competitive, and that’s a sense of accomplishment.

“All of us look back at things we didn’t do, how we didn’t win as much as we’d like, but when I look back at my career, I never once had to struggle to secure my card. I wanted to play longer, and I felt like I was getting better, but obviously it didn’t play out that way.”

When they gather at TPC Sawgrass for the 2021 PLAYERS Championship March 11-14, there will be opportunities to recall a list of heralded winners from recent years – Matt Kuchar in 2012, Tiger Woods in 2013, followed by Martin Kaymer, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, then Webb Simpson in 2018 and Rory McIlroy in the most recent PLAYERS, in 2019. (The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Stellar star power, for sure, and Clark – unlike Woods and Kaymer and Day and McIlroy – never was No. 1 in the world. But neither was he ever an afterthought, not with his ability to ball-strike it with the best of them.

“He is a proper competitor, that one,” Geoff Ogilvy once said of Clark. “He is competitive. He’s impressive when he gets down the stretch.”

Never did the competitive fires in the 5-foot-7, 170-pound Clark burn quite like they did during the 2010 PLAYERS. Having stood seven shots back through 36 holes, he fired a third-round 66 and started Sunday’s final round just three off the lead.

“I had been on Tour nine years hadn’t won at that point,” said Clark. “I was saying to myself, ‘Is this ever going to happen?”

THE PLAYERS Stadium Course was firm and fast that May week, perfect for Clark, who rarely missed fairways and never felt overwhelmed by a golf course, even as the era of the bombers was taking hold.

“I always felt, I was as good with my hybrid (or long iron) as my competitor was with his 6-iron.”

He had come into the tournament playing “quite poorly, to be honest,” but as he got settled into a rhythm, Clark found “my own little world.”

When Clark made an 8-footer at the 18^th hole to shoot a final-round 67, he was 16-under and settled into the locker room with the lead and a TV view of the two players, Lee Westwood and Robert Allenby, who could catch him.

They quickly squandered things away. Westwood, the 54-hole leader, hit into the water at the par-3 17th island green and made double. Allenby, needing to play at 2-under over the final three holes to tie, burned the cup at the par-5 16^th with his eagle putt, and could not birdie either 17 or 18.

Finally, Clark was a PGA Tour winner.

“I always felt I could play the big tournaments,” he said. “I enjoyed the big events. And that week was as good as I could play.”

There would be a second win at the RBC Canadian Open in 2014, then late that fall in an ultimate David vs. Goliath playoff, Clark was beaten by Bubba Watson in the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. Seemingly on top of his game, the dynamo from Durban seemed poised for another solid run of golf.

Little did he know it was about to come to a crashing halt.

Clark played in just 13 tournaments in the 2014-15 season, his play limited because of a pulled tendon in his left elbow. Feeling healthy in 2015-16, he was excited to get going, only to start feeling issues with his back.

“I didn’t know what was wrong, so I kept going out, trying to play,” said Clark. “We took a series of MRIs and all they showed was arthritis in the spine.”

He took injections. He was hopeful. He headed to Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, “a place I could play blindfolded,” and shot 66-69-65-68, finished joint 13^th and was optimistic that he had turned the corner.

Instead, he played one more tournament, rounds of 78—68-74 in Palm Springs. The back pain was insufferable. He went to the sidelines and, unthinkable as it is, has never returned to competition since.

“I’ve seen different doctors and a team of surgeons. We’ve looked at the images and exhausted all the options,” said Clark.

Surgery has been proposed, one suggestion being to remove part of his ribs where they attach to the spine. “But there’s no guarantee,” said Clark. “It’s not a surgery done very often. It’s the only thing they think they can do, but they aren’t sure it will help.

“At the end of the day, I ask myself, ‘Is it worth the risk?’”

For now, the answer is no. Clark will pursue physical therapy and “I’ll continue to try certain things” to alleviate the pain. He always saw his 50^th birthday as an opportunity he’d jump at and Clark remains optimistic that the PGA TOUR Champions will be in his future.

“But the bottom line is, I have to be healthy.” – PGATOUR.com. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Africlear, a global specialist in tailor-made packaging solutions, has partnered with the Sunshine Tour to offer a new eco-friendly bottled water solution at the upcoming Sunshine Tour events.

At the next three tournaments – the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am, the Players Championship and the Gauteng Championship presented by Betway – Africlear will provide bottled water for the Sunshine Tour professionals.

But as part of the Tour’s drive to be an environmentally sensitive Tour with a strong focus on limiting the impact its tournaments have on the local environment, Africlear will also offer an extensive plastic bottle recycling programme at each tournament.

“We love golf, we love the incredible golf courses where the Sunshine Tour events are played, and we want to help look after them,” said Africlear CEO Dewald Gelderblom.

“Our goal is to bring clean bottled water at a reasonable price to the Sunshine Tour professionals while at the same time cleaning up afterwards and caring for our environment.”

Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, welcomed Africlear as a new partner.

“This is another important step for us in our quest to have partners who add value to what we as a Tour are trying to achieve, and in this instance it’s our desire to make as little impact on the environment of the golf courses where we play and to leave them in the same pristine condition as when they were entrusted to us by the club management and members.”

It was around 13:30 on Sunday afternoon when Rhys Enoch’s wife, Lynn, sent him a text saying she was sorry but she couldn’t keep her eyes open and was going to have a Sunday nap, and that she hopes he finishes strong in the final round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am. He did. He went out and won.

Enoch birdied his final three holes – including a chip-in birdie from the bunker on 17 –  on the East Course to close with a 67 and win by one stroke on 12 under par.

South Africa’s Dean Burmester had already finished in the clubhouse on 11 under par with a 66, but Enoch had to endure watching Jake Redman stand over a roughly two-metre birdie putt on the last to force a playoff. Redman missed the putt to sign for a 72 and share second with Burmester.

“I fully expected Jake to make that putt. I’m sad for him that he missed, but obviously I’m delighted I came out on top,” said Enoch, who added to his 2018 Cape Town Open triumph on the Sunshine Tour.

“I’m over the moon. I really didn’t think I was that close to the lead. When we came up 18 with the leaderboard there, my caddie said to me, ‘Don’t look left. Just focus on your putt’. So I did and made the putt for birdie on 18. Then Jake unfortunately missed his and I’d won.”

With a fast start by the likes of Luke Brown and Redman, Enoch admits he didn’t think he was in the running for the title early in the final round.

“They all shot off to -14 and I was around -8 or -9, and I thought it might have slipped from me. Then I got to 15 and saw I was only two behind. But then I three-putted for bogey to be three behind with three to play. An then came those three birdies. This game is crazy and winning is not easy, but I managed to get over the line today.”

And one of the first things he did was text his delighted wife back, with a photo of him and the trophy.

“This win is extremely satisfying. You know, it’s been really tough with this pandemic. It’s been wonderful to be at home and spend time with my wife and my son Carter. But at the same time it’s been stressful with my golf. It’s just feels great to win. This is like a confirmation of the hard work paying off. And to be able to win on a quality golf course like this makes it even sweeter.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo Credit: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

Storm clouds forced the suspension of the second round of the Sunshine Tour’s Kit Kat Group Pro-Am on Saturday, but not before Johannesburg professional Luke Brown was able to find the silver lining.

Dangerous weather at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club forced a suspension of play at 16:10, and the round will have to be completed on Sunday morning before the start of the final round.

But Brown was able to make it into the clubhouse with a sublime seven-under-par 65 that carried him to the top of the leaderboard on 10 under par, and which has him chasing his maiden victory on the Sunshine Tour. Jake Redman is currently tied for the lead on 10 under with three holes of his second round to complete.

“You’re always pleased with a round of seven under, but on this course and with the conditions as gusty as they were today, I’m super pleased,” said Brown, a two-time winner on the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour who is now looking to make the step up at Sunshine Tour level.

He started his round with an eagle on the par-five first hole, then built on that with four birdies in six holes from the fifth. His only bogey of the round came on the fearsome par-four 11^th, but he made up for that by chipping in for birdie on the 16^th – following his playing partner Mitchell who did the same just moments earlier – and then finishing with a birdie on 18.

“My wedge play was very good today. I hit so many wedges to inside of two metres. The bogey on 11 didn’t bother me too much because that is just such a tough hole, and the flag was in a very difficult position. Overall I was pleased to have played the par fives a bit better than I did in the first round, stating with the eagle on the first.”

Redman will still have an opportunity to have his say when he wraps up the final three holes of his second round on Sunday morning. Callum Mowat and Malcolm Mitchell are currently next best in the clubhouse on eight under. Young star Jayden Schaper is at seven under with four holes of his second round still to come, while Garrick Higgo will feel he’s not out of it at six under with five holes of his second round still to play.

It’s a busy leaderboard around Brown, but he’s doing his best to keep focused on the only thing he can control.

“In the end it’s still just you and the golf course. Sure, it’s a step up from the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour. The courses are set up harder and the competition is tougher, but this is where I wanted to be at the start of the tournament. So all I can do is just play my own game and not worry too much about everybody else.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo Credit: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour.

Dean Burmester and Ockie Strydom shared the lead with their rounds of seven-under-par 65 in the first round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s East Course on Friday.

They finished a weather-interrupted day one stroke clear of the South African duo of Malcolm Mitchell and Jake Redman, and Welshman Rhys Enoch.

The first tournament of the Sunshine Tour’s 2021 calendar has drawn a strong contingent of young stars including Garrick Higgo, who is two shots off the lead. Jayden Schaper opened with a round of four under 68 and Wilco Nienaber signed for a 69.

Burmester, playing the back nine first, started strong with birdies at holes 10 and 11 which are amongst the longest back-to-back par fours in golf.

“A birdie-birdie start is always nice, especially on those two holes. That definitely boosted the confidence,” he said. “Those are not the easiest par fours out there. For many years they were the longest back-to-back par fours in the southern hemisphere. You need good tee shots on both.”

He capped off his round with an equally strong finish of three birdies in the final four holes.

“When it comes to the front nine here you always feel like you want to take advantage because you have three par fives there. I didn’t birdied the par-five first, so it was nice to get the other two.”

While it was a bogey-free start for Burmester, he still feels there’s room for improvement.

“There’s always work to be done. I didn’t hit too many fairways, but when I missed I was on the right side so I was able to keep giving myself chances. But it’s just so good to be back playing on the Sunshine Tour again, and back at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington as well.”

Strydom, who played his first full round of golf last week after recovering from a back injury, had a more adventurous start with two birdies, two bogeys and an eagle in his opening six holes. His short game came to the fore with that eagle on the par-five sixth where he holed a lob wedge from a difficult downhill lie at the back of the green. Then he finished his round with three straight birdies.

“This is not an easy course. You’ve really got to keep your head around here, so seven under is a good round for me,” he said.

“I’m in a good space with my game. As I’ve recovered from my back injury I’ve been working a lot more on my swing technique with my coach, and it’s starting to show in the ball flight. I have a lot more confidence in terms of my swing and knowing exactly where the ball will go.”