It’s birdie time!
PRETORIA CC: LAYOUT PLACES PREMIUM ON ACCURACY
Atop-class course and a pack of in-form golfers all hungry for a lucrative victory should make the Tshwane Open teeing off at Pretoria Country Club today a thrilling event as the European Tour visits South Africa for the last time this summer.
Pretoria Country Club is a 6 459m parklands course set in the Waterkloof hills and, although not a particularly long course, it places a premium on accuracy.
Since the tournament moved from Copperleaf estate to Pretoria Country Club in 2015, there has not been a foreign winner, with George Coetzee and Charl Schwartzel keeping the title in South Africa.
Coetzee is back as a bullish former champion, having enjoyed a strong final-round 65 to finish in a tie for seventh in last weekend’s Joburg Open and knows the course intimately having played his junior golf here.
“The course is in unbelievable nick and I’m playing really well, ticking all the boxes I want to,’’ Coetzee said.
‘‘It’s going to be great, I’m really looking forward to it. But it wouldn’t be fun if it was going to be a walkover and the rough is quite thick. The guys won’t be complaining about the course, but they will be losing a couple of balls in the rough. If you hit the rough you will have to suffer the consequences.”
But there are several other golfers who have a lot of experience on the Gary Player-designed course, including Joburg Open winner Darren Fichardt, who is clearly buoyant and full of confidence, dark horse Erik van Rooyen and 2016 Joburg Open runner-up Zander Lombard.
“I have got a pretty good game plan, I have been playing here for the last 15 years, and I will just stick to that game plan and see what happens,” Fichardt said.
Dean Burmester faded in the final round of the Joburg Open with a 71, but he is clearly in form and is tipped for a co-sanctioned title sometime soon.
“I’ll take a lot of positives from last week. This course kind of suits any style of game, whether you’re long, short or anything, so the best player will come out on top. A lot of people have been saying that a win is just around the corner. I’m just going to stick to my guns and do what I can,” Burmester said.