Ernie Els is certain that the eight-man South African contingent will have a big advantage playing on home ground in the European Tour’s Volvo Golf Champions event teeing off at Fancourt on Thursday.

The winners-only invitation event has been moved from Bahrain to George due to political unrest in the Middle East, and the South Africans are licking their lips at the prospect of playing for two million euro on a course they all know well, Fancourt being one of the country’s premier tracks.

Els spends his Christmas holiday every year in nearby Herold’s Bay, while Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace both come from the Southern Cape and Retief Goosen spends plenty of time here too. Hennie Otto, Garth Mulroy, Thomas Aiken and Charl Schwartzel also have plenty of experience of playing on the Links.

“Local knowledge will definitely come into play here, especially when the sea-breeze picks up, and it’s definitely an advantage for myself, Retief and Louis because we’re here on vacation every year and we know the course,” Els said at Fancourt on Wednesday.

And if there’s anyone determined to make that home-ground advantage count, it’s Els, who is coming off a poor year and played several rounds at Fancourt during December.

“We’ve been coming down here now for the last 22 years, so it’s home for us as a family. I played all of December here, so I have a good feel for the course. Knowing the course is also a big advantage,” Els said.

The three-time major winner has dropped out of the top 50 on the world rankings – he’s currently 71st – and it was his victory in the 100th staging of the South African Open in December 2010 that earned him his spot in the 35-man field.

The awful prospect of not qualifying for the Masters looms large for the South African legend, and The Big Easy is certainly not happy with the situation.

“You lose your sense of humour when you’re not putting well and I’d like to get that back. If I can get the putter working, then you’ll see me smiling more.

“But my work ethic and determination are more than ever. The last season was dismal and I really want to turn things around and win some tournaments.

“A lot of people are reminding me that, at the moment, I’m not in the Masters. I know where I stand in the rankings, I don’t need reminding. But I’ve got a couple of months to rectify it – you don’t want to be asking for an invitation to Augusta, so I’ll just have to qualify!” Els said.

Jamie Elson failed to chase down the home town favourite, but he nevertheless earned huge respect for the scintillating 63 he fired in the final round of the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Sunday.

Elson’s brilliant nine-under-par round on the tough East Course saw him vault to within one shot of eventual winner Branden Grace, and the Englishman said it was the mental side of his game that had made all the difference.

“For some reason I felt really relaxed today. It’s funny because I’m normally quite anxious and yesterday I was so edgy out there. I can’t put my finger on why I felt so different today, it must be something that worked in my mental preparation, but I just had this calmness about me,” Elson said.

Elson eagled the 504-metre par-five 18th hole, changing the leaderboard dramatically as he shot up to 16-under-par, just one stroke behind Grace, who showed remarkable composure to keep it that way through his last nine holes.

“To close like that was quite something, it was just one of those days when everything went right for me. I took driver off the tee and leaked it right. I actually thought it was in the bunker. But I caught a decent lie in the rough and had a great yardage for my hybrid, which my caddie calls my ‘magic-stick’.

“It just came out perfectly and pitched on the front of the green, and the reaction of the crowd told me it was pretty close to going in,” Elson said.

As it turned out, Elson’s heroics did not leave Grace much room to move, although the man who sank a 40-foot birdie putt to just earn his tour card never thought he would come that close to winning.

“We just have to see what happens now but I hope I get top five because that will get me into Abu Dhabi in two weeks,” Elson said after his round, more than two hours before Grace finished only one stroke ahead.

So Abu Dhabi is where Elson is headed (he finished fourth there last year), although it could so easily have been Fancourt, where all the previous year’s European Tour winners will line up in the lucrative Volvo Golf Champions tournament from Thursday.

Branden Grace’s impressive victory in the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Sunday made it a wonderful fortnight for former members of the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation.

Former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen won last weekend’s Africa Open in East London, but Grace’s one-shot triumph in Johannesburg was a breakthrough victory for one of South Africa’s most talented youngsters.

Els himself was impressed.

“I’m very proud of him. It’s been an outstanding year for the foundation – last week it was Louis winning and now Branden. I couldn’t have asked for more.

“It’s great to see former members doing so well and their performances will definitely motivate the current members of the foundation,” Els said from his Herold’s Bay holiday home.

The victory will turn Grace from a bright South African prospect into an up-and-coming star of the European Tour, something that the 23-year-old has threatened to do for some time.

Grace’s last foray into Europe – in 2009 – left him rather battered and bruised but, after regaining his card at Q-School last month, he can now kick back and enjoy an exemption until the end of 2013.

“It’s awesome, after just getting my card now I have this exemption. The win is going to get me into a lot of events I never thought I’d be playing in,” Grace said after his maiden European Tour win.

What made Grace’s win even more impressive was that he achieved it by finishing with nine straight pars – pointing to a level head while all the other frontrunners were scrambling around like victims of an anthrax attack.

The other two members of his three-ball – George Coetsee and Richard Finch – crashed to rounds of 75 and 78 respectively.

“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace said. “I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances.”

While Finch struggled on the greens and allowed it to be his funeral (he three-putted three times on the front nine), Grace did not let an uncooperative putter get to him.

“The opportunities were there, but I struggled to get the speed and line together. The greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away. I went out there today thinking the greens would be quicker, but as soon as you really want to make a putt, you hit it a bit too hard and it goes four feet past. The next one you lag a bit and it ends four feet short.

“But a big thanks to Zack [Rasego, his caddy], who told me I hadn’t hit a bad putt all day and eventually my pace came good,” Grace said.

There was an atmosphere of nervous tension at the start as Grace teed off with Coetzee and Finch just three shots behind, but the George-based golfer said he felt good, even at the turn when Jamie Elson eagled his 18th hole to close to within a shot of Grace.

“I actually thought I’d be more nervous. I didn’t really look at the leaderboard because I knew it would be up to my performance. I stuck to my game plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot,” Grace said.

Grace will now be playing in the lucrative, winners’-only Volvo Golf Champions event close to home at Fancourt starting on Thursday and is looking forward to making more of an impact in Europe now that he is older and wiser.

“It’s an unbelievable, amazing feeling, the win has been coming a long time and I really wanted to play in the Volvo.

“The last time I played in Europe, I wasn’t ready. My golf was good, but it wasn’t great. But I’ve grown so much in the last couple of years and taking a couple of steps back was maybe the best thing to happen to me,” Grace said.

South African Branden Grace played with admirable calm to win his first European Tour title when he won the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club by one stroke with a final round of level-par 72.
Grace, playing his 50th European Tour event, finished on 17-under-par, one stroke ahead of Briton Jamie Elson, who catapulted himself into second place with an outstanding nine-under-par 63.
The 23-year-old Grace began the final round with a three-stroke lead over compatriot George Coetzee and Briton Richard Finch. They were all playing in the final three-ball after weather delays on the first three days of the 1.3 million euro co-sanctioned event.
But Finch crashed to a six-over-par 78, three-putting three times on the front nine, to end nine shots off the pace.
Coetzee closed to within two shots of the lead with birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes, but the burly South African faded on the back nine after a double-bogey on the par-four 13th when he hooked his approach shot into the water. The world number 80 finished with a 75 to close on 11-under-par in a tie for 14th.
Grace, a former member of the Ernie Els Foundation, put together nine straight pars on the back nine to hold off Elson and six golfers who finished in a tie for third on 14-under – Scots David Drysdale and Marc Warren, and South Africans Jaco van Zyl, Trevor Fisher junior, Dawie van der Walt and Michiel Bothma, his cousin.
The pressure of leading seemed to affect Grace at the start of the final round as he bogeyed the par-three second hole. But a wonderful approach shot to within eight feet on the 389-metre par-four ninth hole set up a birdie that seemed to settle the former South African amateur strokeplay champion.
“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I stuck to my game-plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace told reporters after his triumph, which earned him 206 050 euro.
Grace’s back nine was the epitome of solid golf under pressure as he made no mistakes off the tee and was superb with his irons. The margin of victory would have been greater if Grace had not narrowly missed a number of birdie putts.
“The opportunities were there, but I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances. I struggled to get the lines exactly right, the greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away.
“Obviously it’s awesome to win, it’s been coming a long time and it’s really nice to have the first win back home. The hard work has paid off and my consistency has paid off,” Grace, who earlier this week won the Gary Player Trophy for best stroke average on the Sunshine Tour, said.