Norris leads latest SA golf charge
SOUTH African professional golfers are an amazing lot – they never stop flying the flag high wherever they play, whether it is on the US PGA Tour, the European Tour, the Asian Tour or the Japan Tour.
The 2021 season has by all accounts been one of the most successful ones for the travelling professionals – Garrick Higgo won on the US PGA Tour and the European Tour, Erik van Rooyen, who had a fantastic late run in the Fedexcup, was also victorious in the US, Branden Grace took centre stage in Puerto Rico, plus there were wins for Daniel van Tonder, Justin Harding and Dean Burmester on the European Tour, and at the weekend Shaun Norris won his sixth title in Japan .
Add to this the outstanding performances of Louis Oosthuizen at the Majors and it tells you that South African golf is flying high.
Last weekend the 39-year-old Norris won the Japan Open Golf Championship at the Biwako Country Club and dedicated his win to his wife, who is expecting their second child in March next year.
It was a double celebration as his brother Kyle, who caddies for him, celebrated his 35th birthday last Sunday.
The victory earned Norris $368000 (about R5.336 million) and he is now in seventh place on the Order of Merit.
Norris shot rounds of 67, 64, 64 and 70 to win by four shots at 19-under 265.
Yuta Ikeda was second at 15-under. Another South African, Scott Vincent, tied for 15th place at seven-under-par.
SUNSHINE TOUR
AT THE age of 34, Lyle Rowe won his third Sunshine Tour title – his first in five years – at the Blue Label Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City.
He finished on 33 points in the Modified Stableford event, four clear of Dylan Mostert. Ruan Korb’s final-round 67 saw him finish third on 27 alongside Jaco Ahlers.
Rowe joined the paid ranks in 2009 and recorded his first win in 2014 at the Zambia Sugar Open and two years later, in 2016, he bagged the Golden Pilsner Zimbabwe Open.
Then the battle started for the Port Elizabeth pro, who came close to another victory on a number of occasions in the past few years before finally cracking it at the Gary Player Country Club last weekend. The win comes at the right time for Rowe as the Sunshine Tour heads towards some big championships with big money.
There are two major co-sanctioned European Tour events ahead – the SA Open, at Sun City from December 2 to 5, followed by the Dunhill Championship which will be staged at Leopard Creek from December 9 to 12.
And this week there’s the Blair Athol Championship which started early today, followed by the PGA Championship at St Francis Links from November 4 to 7.
If Rowe, who seems to have run into some good form, can crack it at either the SA Open or the Dunhill Championship, he will put himself in line to earn a card for the next two years on the European Tour.
EUROPEAN TOUR GUINNESS RECORD ATTEMPT
SEAN Crocker of the US, Denmark’s Nicolai Højgaard, South Africa’s big-hitting Wilco Nienaber and Australia’s Min Woo Lee were tasked last week with the challenge of breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest hole of golf by a team of four.
They had to beat 27.88 seconds. They were put to the test on the 501-yard par-five fourth hole at Valderrama. Watch it on the European Tour website.