Ken Borland

A shaky back nine in the wind cost Jaco van Zyl victory in the Africa Open two weeks ago, but the in-form South African will be one of the favourites at the European Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open which starts at Copperleaf Golf Estate on Thursday.

Van Zyl is chasing his first European Tour victory, which is a long-awaited event seeing as though he has had five top-three finishes in the last three years, as well as seven other top-10s and 11 Sunshine Tour victories.

The 34-year-old will need to improve his form off the tee, however, with Copperleaf being a lengthy 7,123m monster, but he does have the confidence of coming off a win in last weekend’s Sunshine Tour event, the Dimension Data Pro-Am in George.

“The course is really long but the greens are receptive, so I’m sure the scoring will be low,” Van Zyl said of the Copperleaf course formerly known as Gardener Ross.

“My short game is still sharp and my ball-striking was really good last week, I hit the ball nicely and it’s a bit better every week. You have to know what to hit off the tee here and what sort of lie you want to hit your second from,” Van Zyl, who is 82^nd in driving distance on the European Tour this year and 37^th in accuracy, said.

There is no doubt Van Zyl is a major threat in the final co-sanctioned event of the 2012/13 summer, sitting in first place in the Investec Cup standings, third on the Sunshine Tour order of merit, 33^rd on the Race to Dubai and up to 104^th on the world rankings after starting the year in 146^th. His last three finishes have been tied 11^th, tied second and last week’s victory in George.

But the field is a useful one and there are many dangers lurking, much like the numerous large bunkers that are a feature of the Ernie Els-designed course at Copperleaf.

Steve Webster of England is perhaps the most consistent performer on the European Tour thus far this season with four top-10 finishes in six starts, while South Africans Garth Mulroy and Thomas Aiken are also in fine form.

Africa Open winner Darren Fichardt is in the field and there is no lack of experienced worldwide winners either, with Michael Campbell, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Simon Dyson and Darren Clarke all teeing it up on Thursday.

Other participants who have shown top-class form lately include James Kingston, Adilson da Silva, Trevor Fisher Jnr and Danie van Tonder.

Olazabal is a golfing legend, a 31-time winner worldwide, including two Masters crowns, and a triumphant Ryder Cup as captain last year.

But the Spaniard admitted that he is going through a tough time with the driver, which is a major drawback on this particular course.

“Last weekend when I left home we had snow, so I didn’t have much practice over the last week because of the weather. But my last tournament was good [tied 17^th at the Dubai Desert Classic four weeks ago], although I’m having a tough time with my driver. It’s still my Achilles heel and with the course as long as it is, you need to hit it solid off the tee,” Olazabal said.

Campbell, a New Zealander, is also a major champion having won the 2005 US Open as a qualifier. He suffered a missed cut in his last tournament – the Dubai Desert Classic – but was in good form in the Middle East before that with top-20 finishes in both Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

A Maori, Campbell seems to have a healthy outlook on a game that catapulted him to stardom in 2005 before sending him back into anonymity.

“It’s only a game. My results reflect that I’ve turned around again, but I’ve always been up and down like a yo-yo, some very big highs and very big lows. I accept that and I’ve always had them. That’s golf,” Campbell said.

Dyson is a regular visitor to South Africa, having played in 13 co-sanctioned events and finished in the top-20 four times.

And he is a wary admirer of the talent in this country.

“Without a doubt I’ll be watching a few South Africans. They seem to come off the conveyor belt every year and you’ve got some really, really good talent. They all hit it a mile, which sickens me. Every single one of them seems to bomb it, even Sterne who must be 5-foot-one and Schwartzel who could hide behind the pin! It’s just ridiculous, it must be something in the water… or the biltong!” the Englishman joked.

Though the fairways are generally wide, there is a host of bunkers, and golfers who are not accurate run the risk of becoming mired in these sandy expanses.

“It’s brutally long in places, but some of the short holes are typical Ernie – lots of run-offs. A good short game is going to come to the fore if you do miss the short holes. It’s going to be a tough test, because every par-five feels like 650 yards, so it’s not the usual where everyone is going to be hammering it in two. The course is good and it’s in great condition,” the veteran Clarke said.

Milkha Singh is another who has been coming to South Africa for a long time, since 1998, and he is looking forward to a bit of wind blowing around the Highveld grassland course outside Centurion, the Indian having won the Scottish Open last year at the blustery links of Castle Stuart.

“It’s long but bearable. But I hope the wind picks up, that would make it interesting and I’m really happy in the wind,” he said.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-02-28-tshwane-open-preview-youth-and-power-vs-age-and-finesse/#.Ud1LBtI3A6w

Akasia Country Club, in the northern suburbs of Pretoria, takes its name from the many Acacias that line the fairways so it was no surprise that my February visit should throw up that great lover of thorn trees, a Willow Warbler, scurrying through the branches.

Set in bushveld country in the shadow of the Magalies Mountain, Akasia Country Club is a very pleasant place for a soothing stroll in the middle of suburbia but a potentially tense, if rewarding venue for a round of golf.

Unusually, the 6431m course features five par-threes and five par-fives and the number of short holes provides a hint that there could be plenty of water around.

And there is. The Boepensspruit runs through the course and comes into play on numerous holes.

The front nine is classical parkland with lots of water as well as trees just off the fairway, while the back nine has more of an estate feel to it, but is tighter and still has plenty of water to get over. The greens are bent-grass, with kikuyu on the fairways.

Water and trees are, of course, magnets for birds and my stroll around the course netted me 35 species, as well as sightings of Springbok, Impala and even Common Duiker in the more wooded patches. Look out too for the Southern Tree Agamas scuttling around the tree-trunks, always peering at you from the other side of the tree.

Apart from the cute Willow Warbler, I also enjoyed the Whitewinged Widows in the scrubby areas, with their soft, scratchy, rasping calls sounding like a piece of paper being crumpled up.

A Yellowbilled Kite was flying about and I fancy other raptors will be around due to the proximity of the Magalies Mountain, while the stream shelters Hamerkop and Greenbacked Heron.

Blackthroated Canaries were dashing around near the clubhouse and Blacksmith Plover breed just off the fairways … look out for the black-blotched eggs!

Eggs of the Blacksmith Plover

Your round of golf will begin with an absolute knee-trembler of a shot between two trees and over water to reach the green on the par-three first hole, 163 metres away. A nasty fast putt awaits from the back of the green.

And then it’s over Waterbok Road and into the parklands of the rest of the front nine. The par-four second hole features another sloping green with a fast putt from the back while a long par-three awaits on the fourth. Measuring anything from 166 to 196 metres from the tee, there is a stately Old Cape Dutch building to aim at behind the green running the width of the fairway, but beware going right because a road and out-of-bounds lurks there.

The first par-five of the front nine is a short 436m, but it is uphill and a stream runs across the fairway. When I was walking this hole, the entire three-ball playing it put their balls in the water!

The stroke one, par-four sixth is next, measuring 395m with a tricky elevated green.

The front nine ends with a short par-three, but once again you’re hitting over water.

Looking down the par-three fourth fairway

A stream brings water into play again on the 10th and 11th holes, while the front of the 13th green slopes away from the hole, making distance control on the 418m par-four a priority.

The par-five 14th is rated the easiest hole on the course, but the approach to the green is narrow, as it is on the next hole, also a par-five, which also features water.

The last par-three is the 16th hole, where a narrow green is well-protected by bush close-in on the right and a hazard on the left.

The final two holes are doglegs. The par-four 17th goes sharply to the left and there are awkward mounds in the semi-rough on the left-hand side of the fairway in case you try and cut the corner, while the green slopes from back to front.

The final hole is a wonderful 548m par-five, stroke two with the fairway doglegging right in a broad curve, with out of bounds tight on the left. You then have to hit your approach over a dam on to the green, with bunkers at the back.

Sightings list

Laughing Dove

Redeyed Dove

African Hoopoe

Common Myna

Blacksmith Plover

Wattled Plover

Spotted Flycatcher

Southern Masked Weaver

Southern Red Bishop

Whitewinged Widow

House Sparrow

Cape Sparrow

Blackeyed Bulbul

Willow Warbler

Crowned Plover

African Palm Swift

Whitethroated Swallow

Greater Striped Swallow

Yellowbilled Kite

Whitebellied Sunbird

European Swallow

Tawnyflanked Prinia

Cape Wagtail

Fiscal Shrike

Blackheaded Heron

Southern Tree Agama

Egyptian Goose

Little Swift

Hamerkop

Greenbacked Heron

Springbok

Cape Turtle Dove

Blackthroated Canary

Common Duiker

Hadeda Ibis

Redfaced Mousebird

Impala

Little Egret

Bronze Mannikin

The Nedbank Golf Challenge (NGC) is set to once again go ahead at the end of the year at Sun City, thanks to the demise of the Tournament of Hope that sounds a clear warning to the international golf tours that they are losing control of their players.

The Sunshine Tour, in conjunction with the International Federation of PGA Tours, had initially announced that the Tournament of Hope, an $8.5 million event modelled on the World Golf Championship tournaments, would take place in late November and it is an open secret that they had hoped Sun City would host it.

But with the announcement that the Tournament of Hope has been put on hold, the NGC is no longer under pressure, although it is believed negotiations are under way to alter the format of the tournament from its traditional 12-man field.

It is likely that the NGC will have an expanded field – possibly as many as 50 golfers – while it will also enjoy closer ties with the Sunshine and European Tours, elevating it from a mere exhibition tournament.

The NGC has been in existence for 32 years and it is in many ways a relic of the past, having been designed to bring top overseas golfers to South Africa (or Bophuthatswana as it was then known) during the days of sporting isolation. Having once been the richest tournament in the world, it is now struggling to attract the top players who have so many more options all over the world to choose from.

It is this “player-power” that has effectively sunk (hopefully temporarily) the Tournament of Hope.

Despite offering more prizemoney than any of the WGC events, there was no guarantee that the event would attract the top players.

Even the WGC events face the same challenge these days: Last November, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods withdrew from the HSBC Champions in Shenzhen, preferring to play an exhibition match elsewhere in China instead.

And that’s what the Sunshine Tour and Sail, the Tournament of Hope promoters, feared: No matter how much money they were offering, there was no guarantee leading players would make the trip to South Africa, especially at the end of the year.

Although it wasn’t in the contract, they were hoping that what had been promised to them by the U.S. PGA Tour  – that the event would count for their money-list and for FedEx Cup points, as well as earning the winner a three-year exemption in America – would be delivered.

Unfortunately these incentives have not yet been forthcoming, although Sunshine Tour commissioner Selwyn Nathan is optimistic that they might come through in Masters week in April.

As one Sunshine Tour insider said: “We’re not in the business of over-promising and there wasn’t enough motivation for the top players to guarantee their presence in South Africa”.

Without the top names, the sponsors’ investment would not bring sufficient return and it is to the credit of the Sunshine Tour that they have been honest with their stakeholders about this.

Meanwhile, Alastair Roper, the NGC tournament director, has been praising the event as “the best tournament ever”, using the testimonials of 2012 champion Martin Kaymer, veteran Bernhard Langer and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts as evidence.

The changing landscape of professional golf may force the NGC to alter the shape and feel of the event, but the end-of-year party at Sun City looks set to still be the encore of the South African golfing year.