Ken Borland

Towards the end of a long year, there is a sense that most of the top European Tour campaigners are bringing aching bodies to the Serengeti Golf Estate in Kempton Park this week for the South African Open, but there are two local golfers who will be highly motivated to put injury-disrupted years behind them and claim the national title.

Apart from the weight of expectation placed on Charl Schwartzel by his adoring local fans, the 2011 Masters champion is putting pressure on himself to turn around a disappointing year and claim the SA Open title for the first time.Lady Luck was smiling on Schwartzel during a stellar 2011 that saw him rise into the top 10 in the world rankings, but she changed her tune this year as the 28-year-old not only struggled with his form but was then hit with injuries, including a niggling rib muscle complaint.

“I haven’t had the best of times over the last couple of months, plus having that torn intercostal meant I had a few bad habits in my swing which I’m trying to fix. I’m just not putting four good rounds together, but my game is definitely on the up; it feels good, it’s there.

“I haven’t had a great year, but it’s not over yet and it can still become a great year with a couple of wins. There are five more tournaments left this year and we all know things can change very quickly in this game. I’ve never had the opportunity to play the SA Open in Gauteng, where I’ve played most of my golf, because it’s usually been on the coast, so hopefully I can do well because it’s a title that’s missing from my CV,” Schwartzel said at Serengeti on Tuesday.

The Blair Atholl resident arrived back in Johannesburg last week and used the time to prepare thoroughly for the tournament, making it clear the SA Open was a title he had serious ambitions of winning.

“I had a break from the tour and it gave me the opportunity to prepare properly. I’ve very much prepared for this tournament as I would for a major,” he said.

The four-time Sunshine Tour Order of Merit winner will be aiming to string four good rounds together, something he has struggled with this season. His last outing was two weeks ago at the BMW Masters in Shanghai, where he finished in a tie for 16th to epitomise his season.

“In my last tournament, I went from 13th to eighth to fourth and then back to 16th after I shot level-par on the last day. After three good rounds, there was the one bad round. If I had shot 68 I could of finished fifth. Everyone can make one good score, but you have to put four together to win and I need to get more consistent,” Schwartzel said.

While Schwartzel’s high standards mean he is disappointed with a year that has put him in the top 30 of the Race to Dubai (the European Tour Order of Merit) and 33rd on the world rankings, fellow Gautenger Richard Sterne is looking to compete for titles again after what has been a highly successful return from a serious back problem.

To be 46th on the European order of merit after being off the tour for two years is an amazing achievement and indicative of Sterne’s ability, but the 31-year-old is eager to challenge and perhaps add to his 2008 SA Open title won at Pearl Valley.

“I’ve been consistent. Nothing fantastic, but I guess it’s acceptable for someone who’s been out for two years. I just haven’t really competed. I need to get my confidence back, I haven’t competed on Sunday for a long time and I miss that.

There’s a nice run of six events now in South Africa, and hopefully I can win one or two of them,” Sterne said.

While Schwartzel, new sensation Branden Grace and Sterne will lead the local charge, there are 63 overseas golfers hoping to steal the second-oldest national title in the game from the Southern African contingent.

The most notable of them, and the highest ranked player in the field, is Martin Kaymer.

The German was the number one golfer in the world for six weeks last year, but has now dropped to 32nd, one place higher than Schwartzel. With the benefit of hindsight, the 27-year-old said he would concentrate more on his bread-and-butter job as a golfer if he ever got back to the summit again.

“Obviously it’s very difficult becoming number one, but staying there is even harder. You know it’s something special and you’re proud, but to maintain it is very difficult. You have the expectations of both yourself and others – apparently you are the best golfer in the world.

“My long-term plan is to get back there and if I do, I wouldn’t accept so many invites, I would say ‘no’ more. You get the opportunity to do lots of things you dreamt about as a kid, but you lose lots of practice and private time. You’re not that happy, because you don’t have time for yourself,” Kaymer said.

Kaymer put himself back in the spotlight with his thrilling Ryder Cup heroics and he watched the highlights two weeks later.

“I knew the result, but I was still nervous. I wanted to make sure my reaction wasn’t too retarded,” the maker of the winning putt joked.

To have a golfer of his standing at the SA Open is a real plus, and Kaymer made it clear he is eager to put the title on his CV.

“I don’t come to South Africa very often, but obviously the Nedbank Golf Challenge is a great tournament in two weeks’ time, and this is a national open with a lot of history. It’s the week before the Tour Championship and there’s not much time difference between here and Dubai. Plus I haven’t won yet this year and I’ve won in Europe, America and Asia, but not in Africa,” Kaymer said.

Like the rest of the eastern half of the country, Serengeti has had plenty of rain (plus startling hail) already this summer, and the rough is going to be difficult to get out of, never mind being able to get spin.

For Grace, the estate course has a links feel which will suit the winner of this year’s Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship down to the ground.

“The rough is up and when the greens are firmer once the tournament starts, then it will be a really good challenge. If you’re too positive, there are some holes that will bite you. The odd bounce of the ball can go your way or not your way and, with all the slopes on the greens, it gives me the same feeling as the Fancourt Links and I seem to play my best golf when there’s a links feel…” Grace said.

The key, two days before the tournament starts on Thursday, would appear to be course knowledge, with Grace having the benefit of shooting a 68 in his last competitive round at Serengeti to finish in the top 10 of last year’s SA Open.

“The greens are severe and you need to know where to miss. You can very quickly be made to look like a fool on these greens, and it’s one of those courses you can’t play enough, purely because of the greens. You need to know every slope from the fairway,” Schwartzel warned.

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You can say what you want about the Springboks’ skills and style of play, but there is no doubting they are a team of excellent character, as proven by their come-from-behind 16-12 victory over Ireland in Dublin at the weekend.

Trailing 3-12 at half-time – a scoreline which flattered them, if anything – the Springboks produced a wonderful second-half display to allow coach Heyneke Meyer to claim his first away victory.

It was a victory built on magnificent defence. To keep Ireland scoreless in the second half, allowing them just one missed shot at goal, was a superb effort and testament to enormous discipline and commitment.

That defence was at its best in the last 25 minutes, when three Ireland attacks of 14, nine and 13 phases respectively foundered on the resolute green-and gold-wall.

The first half was totally different.

The locals were undoubtedly contemplating kegs of celebratory Guinness as Ireland thoroughly dominated the first half. The Springboks were ill-disciplined and were made to pay as referee Wayne Barnes seemed to have his eye on them, penalising them 11 times in the first 40 minutes.

And apart from conceding four penalties to flyhalf Jonathan Sexton, the Springboks could get nothing going themselves, having just a solitary Pat Lambie penalty to their name at the break as their moves came to naught due to handling errors or turnovers at the breakdown, where Ireland dominated in the first half.

The Springboks’ tactical kicking was also poor and on the several occasions they did try something ambitious with ball in hand, it was often from the wrong positions and without the hard work having been done first on the inside. The result was one-off runners isolated out wide and either a penalty or a turnover to Ireland.

It was one of those days when nothing seemed to go right for the Springboks. They had even lost their talismanic and hugely popular loosehead prop, Beast Mtawarira, to heart palpitations on the morning of the Test. (He has since been released from hospital and should be fine to continue with the tour).

Even JP Pietersen was harshly yellow-carded for a tackle that was a split-second too early, the refereering team undoubtedly being swayed by the howling of the capacity crowd.

It would have been so easy for this largely inexperienced team to have lost their composure and crumbled to an embarrassing defeat, but instead they came out in the second half and produced a compelling 40 minutes of rugby that were devoid of the errors that had blighted their first half.

A fiery start to the second half saw a penalty kicked to touch – credit to captain Jean de Villiers for that – and an impressive rolling maul was launched which Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip could only bring down illegally, earning himself a yellow card.

Shortly thereafter, scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar sniped over under the poles for the only try of the match.

That cut the deficit to 10-12 and the Springboks played the percentages much better thereafter. The ball was kept in hand, but it was also kept tighter with short passes from the rucks, and eventually Ireland cracked under the barrage of ball-carriers, going offsides and allowing Lambie to grab the lead with his second penalty.

The Ireland offensive plan was based on the possibility of earning penalties within kickable distance rather than any obvious threat to the tryline, but the defence of the Springboks was nevertheless magnificent.

The skills of openside flank Francois Louw on the ground also helped tremendously, as did the introduction of loosehead prop Heinke van der Merwe in the 64^th minute, the Ireland-based prodigal son earning crucial penalties in his first two scrums.

The return of Van der Merwe to the Springbok fold after playing just one Test against Wales in 2007 could well be one of the major success stories of the Meyer tenure. The former Lions prop was rated as one of the strongest scrummagers in the country before joining Leinster in 2010 and he can also play tighthead, a position where there is a serious lack of depth in South African rugby.

The performances of all four props who played was impressive, while hooker Adriaan Strauss was an almost manic presence all over the field as he won his family battle with cousin and Irish debutant Richardt Strauss.

Lock Eben Etzebeth’s work in the lineouts was once again of the highest quality, while the physical presence he and loose forwards Willem Alberts and Duane Vermeulen brought to the contest was also instrumental in the defensive steel of the Springboks.

While De Villiers received the ball almost impossibly flat in midfield and still made yards every time, the most talked-about backline player was Lambie.

The troubles of the first half aside, the 22-year-old produced a solid if unspectacular display, although he was instrumental in the impressive change of game plan in the second half that proved the mental abilities of this Springbok outfit.

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Heyneke Meyer has admitted that he tends to err on the side of the conservative, and the Springbok coach has done it again with his answer to the team’s flyhalf conundrum ahead of their Test against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

While Meyer has taken the plunge and rewarded Pat Lambie for his outstanding Currie Cup form with the starting number 10 jersey, he has retained Morne Steyn in the match squad, on the bench, undoubtedly as a failsafe.

While Meyer’s caution is understandable – he stands to lose his job if his teams don’t win in an environment where the margin between success and failure is very small – there is the danger that his fears could rub off on the players and leave them with the feeling that the coach doesn’t have complete faith in their abilities.

Meyer has not only suggested he believes Lambie might not be up to the task by including the out-of-form but experienced Steyn as back-up, but also by ditching his plan to make a change at fullback.

Before the tour, Meyer suggested he wanted to look at Jaco Taute at fullback, with the 21-year-old being largely anonymous in his two starts at outside centre at the end of the Rugby Championship. But the coach has ultimately gone with Zane Kirchner again, the Bulls man’s tactical kicking ability saving him and again pointing to the lack of total faith in Lambie’s abilities.

Of course, Meyer does deserve some credit for going down the Lambie route at 10 when he probably felt Steyn was the totally safe choice. But the Bulls player’s confidence is gone, and it will be seriously tested if he has to be rushed off the bench in the final quarter with the Springboks in trouble.

Elton Jantjies, who was preferred to Steyn as the injured Johan Goosen’s back-up in the last two Tests, is now gone from the match-day 22 and has paid for some average showings as the defending champion Lions were eliminated from the Currie Cup.

Apart from improving his winning record, which currently stands at just 44%, the other thing Meyer is hoping to get from the Great Britain and Ireland tour is an indication of which players can shine in those conditions, with an eye on the next World Cup in England and Wales in 2015.

And they are conditions that the Springboks have often struggled in. They have just emerged from a three-match losing streak against Ireland, scraping home 23-21 at the Aviva Stadium two years ago, and they can expect the men in emerald green to come out with intense passion and commitment.

Ireland themselves have some hard knocks to recover from, their previous Test resulting in a 60-0 whitewash at the hands of the All Blacks in Hamilton in June, while they have also been hard-hit by injuries.

Centre Brian O’Driscoll, hooker Rory Best, flank Sean O’Brien and fullback Rob Kearney are all out of action for all their November internationals, while loose forward Stephen Ferris (ankle) and lock Paul O’Connell (back) failed to recover from their niggles and were both ruled out this week.

But the Irish still boast quality players, particularly in their backline. Centres Gordon D’Arcy and Keith Earls and wing Tommy Bowe just need the slightest aperture in the defence to be a major threat, but they will need a steady diet of front-foot ball to make that happen.

It is up front where the Springboks will be hoping to really dominate the Irish. There were times against both Australia and New Zealand when the South African pack overwhelmed their opponents and they will be looking to dominate the collisions again on Saturday.

Ireland’s new captain, eighthman Jamie Heaslip, will need to lead from the front but the Springboks will have Duane Vermeulen and Willem Alberts watching him closely to ensure the powerful 28-year-old does not build up momentum for his side.

Flyhalf Jonathan Sexton and his replacement, Ronan O’Gara, have both previously kicked Ireland to victory over the Springboks and they will be looking to dominate territory and grab whatever points are on offer through penalties.

The Springboks will obviously have to meet fire with fire, but discipline will be paramount with referee Wayne Barnes sometimes verging on the pedantic. Rainy weather is also expected to hit the Irish capital on Friday, making the game even more of an arm-wrestle. There will be an especially interesting clash between hooker Adriaan Strauss and his cousin Richardt, who will make his Test debut on Saturday in the unlikely colours of Ireland.

While the Test will be won and lost up front, most eyes, however, will be on Lambie and whether he can do enough to make that number 10 jersey his own. To convince Meyer of that, the young star will need to control the game with his boot as much as anything else. He managed to do it for the Sharks during their exceptionally wet October and there is no reason Lambie can’t do it again.

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