Cape Open lures back three former winners

LOCAL supporters, starved of professional golf action, will hopefully be out in big numbers to watch proceedings during the fourth staging of the R 1.2 million Lion Of Africa Cape Open, beginning at Royal Cape tomorrow.

Many of the country’s leading players will be in a 156-strong field fighting it out for the winner’s cheque of R190 200.

All three previous winners of the title – Jake Roos, Tjaart van der Walt and Jaco Ahlers – will be teeing it up again. Roos came through a four-way play-off to win the first event in 2012.

The field can look forward to a layout in tip-top shape, albeit it a touch on the short side.

But any thoughts players may have of shooting low numbers could well be tempered should the south-easter make an appearance.

As for who will be contending, no clear favourites emerge. Maybe one of the younger brigade can put in a challenge on Sunday afternoon – like in-form invitee Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

The 21-year-old claimed backto-back victories on the Big Easy Tour in September to top the Order of Merit standings and secure a card on the Sunshine Tour for 2016.

While the Delmas golfer, who dominated the amateur scene in 2013 and 2014 before being handed a nine-month suspension for the inadvertent use of a banned substance to treat a stutter, doesn’t have full exemption for the new season, winning next month’s Sunshine Tour Qualifying School would change that.

‘That’s what I will be striving for,” said Bezuidenhout, who won his first pro tournament – the IGT Tour’s Centurion Academy Classic – in March. “My goal is to over the next four months try to get inside the top 30 on the Sunshine Order of Merit.”

Jaco Ehlers is the defending champion this week. “Winning here set me up for a good run last year. So I’m glad to be back at the home of SA golf. I’ll be relying on my confidence to get me through and for sure my aim is to win again. Won’t be easy, the lineup is strong.” – Mike de Bruyn