Ken Borland

Danie van Tonder has already won five times on the Sunshine Tour so he may not fall into the category of “rising star” in the classical sense, but the 29-year-old has lately been playing with the sort of consistency and maturity that suggests he could well be the next big South African golf export.

The winner of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club at the end of last month has finished in the top-10 of his last eight consecutive events on the Sunshine Tour and is currently in third place on the order of merit for the Rise Up Series that marked the return of professional golf. The last two events, at the ERPM Golf Club from September 23 and then the finale at Huddle Park the following week, will undoubtedly see him push for the title, and his eagerness to maintain the momentum he is currently enjoying was illustrated by his participation in the Big Easy IGT Tour’s event at Copperleaf this week. Of course Van Tonder notched another top-10 finish, claiming third place, just one stroke off making the playoff for the title.

What marks Van Tonder out as being different to so many other golf pros is his willingness to try different things; the mainstream is not necessarily the way for him. From the unorthodoxies of his swing to his diet to the fact that his wife has been on his bag for most of his career, the former number one amateur is his own man.

He says the consistency he is now enjoying is mostly down to the patience he has shown in just plugging away through a career that has seen some meteoric rises and some periods in the doldrums.

“I’ve always felt consistent about my game, I’m almost 30 now though, I’m a bit older and everything takes time. Being my own coach, a self-taught golfer with my wife helping me, I guess I am my own person and I have never been scared to try something new. Even if it works, I’ve never been scared to think outside the box. I’m not the cleverest cookie, but I would say I am smart.

“But that being said, my swing [which is remarkably stiff-armed] is still the same, to me it’s just back-and-through. It feels simple and I like to keep it as simple as possible because then there’s not much space for error. I’m not so focused on the technical side, I’m more of a feel player. I’ve always been good with my irons, I stick to the same set of Titleist 716 CBs for a while, it’s something I can work with without worrying about between all the gym and travel. But in the last four years it is my putting that has shown the most improvement,” the Sunshine Tour’s order of merit runner-up in both 2014 and last season says.

Europe surely beckons for Van Tonder, who last played regularly on that tour in 2015, finishing 145^th in the Race to Dubai to miss out on regaining his card. But with two top-10 finishes in co-sanctioned events in South Africa, as well as another three in Challenge Tour tournaments here, winning his card back on home soil is a strong possibility.

In February, at the Cape Town Open at Royal Cape GC, Van Tonder went into the final round leading by two strokes after rounds of 66 67 and 69, but he then faded into a tie for seventh with a 78.

But he believes there’s no need to try and be a superhero about it, a return to Europe will come when the time is right.

“Playing in Europe has always been the goal, but it’s been very hard to get over there with Covid, there are so many new rules. Plus you have to live in a bubble and not leave your hotel room. Next year things should be a bit better and I will just try and get more chances to play over there. Winning our order of merit will get me a few invites as well.

“But I just need to play more European Tour events, it’s no good just having four days to try and win your card, that’s very hit-and-miss, you need about 10 starts and then if you are consistent you get places on the order of merit. And my eight top-10s in a row show I can be consistent. It’s just a question of time, I feel,” Van Tonder says.

What is not in question is his hunger and work ethic; the Sasolburg-born golfer says he spends most of his ‘spare’ time with clubs either in his hands or very much on his mind.

“I like to practise a lot, when I’m lying on the couch I tend to think about practice. You do need to chill sometimes to take your mind off golf, and we do go to Durban to visit family. “But my wife Abigail and I are always together, 24/7, and I love it. She’s been on my bag for the last 7-8 years and she played when she was younger so it’s nice to have her as my caddy. She’s clever when it comes to golf and if I hit a few bad shots then she will ask me to ‘do this or do that’, things I don’t think about. She understands everything about the game,” Van Tonder says.

Pretoria Country Club probably has two favourite current professional golfers in George Coetzee and Tristen Strydom and on Friday the two ‘pets’ went head-to-head in the final round of the Titleist Championship with Coetzee emerging as a four-shot winner in a contest he said was tighter than the final margin suggested.

Coetzee and Strydom began the day both on seven-under-par, but Coetzee added to his two Tshwane Open titles at the Waterkloof course by firing a superb six-under-par 66 on Friday, winning himself R95 100.

The 23-year-old Strydom, in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour, performed admirably to post a 70 and earn R69 000, more than his total previous earnings of R58 877. And the resident and member of the Pretoria Country Club estate would have been properly in contention were it not for consecutive double-bogeys on the par-three fifth and the par-four sixth holes, from which he did exceptionally well to still shoot two-under-par.

“Tristen is a really exciting player, he hits the ball so good and definitely has a bright future. Were it not for just a couple of holes he would have really had me sweating,” Coetzee admitted. “But it’s always special winning at Pretoria Country Club and being a Titleist player, they have both supported me my whole career. I’m really happy to have won in front of everyone who was expecting me to perform, I could hear their cheers from a long way off,” he added below the clubhouse balcony that was littered with people supporting Coetzee and Strydom.

“Usually expectation is the killer so it was nice to pull it off,” Coetzee continued. “I really enjoyed the pressure of playing while in the lead, being in a tournament situation and under stress, because I’ve worked a lot on my mental game in Lockdown and made a lot of good strides. I felt comfortable attacking the flags, tending to a certain side if I missed so I would still be safe.”

Coetzee actually made an awful start to the day with bogeys on the first two holes. A five at the first was in fact a big escape for the 34-year-old, who had to fashion a cunning piece of innovation to only drop one shot as his ball was against the boundary wall. Coetzee hit it into the wall and rebounded it back on to the green.

“The last time I was against that wall was when I was 13 years old, I learnt my lesson then but obviously forgot it today. In the end I was very happy to make bogey because it was a tough putt,” he said.

Another bogey on the par-four second may have suggested Coetzee was vulnerable but it was one of the great cons as he powered his way back from his poor start with six birdies between the fourth and 10^th holes. He added two more birdies on the par-three 14^th and the par-four 17^th holes to complete his 11^th Sunshine Tour victory.

“On the second I basically hit the ball flush over the green so I had really hit just one bad shot, so I was still pretty happy and was confident to still go for the flags,” Coetzee said.

On a glorious sunny day that was fantastic for those wanting to work on a spring tan, Darren Fichardt made the biggest move on the final day with a top-class seven-under 65 that lifted him into fourth place on six-under. Jaco Ahlers completed a solid week’s work with a 67 to finish third on seven-under, two behind second-placed Strydom.

The Rise Up Series now takes a three-week break before resuming with the penultimate event at ERPM Golf Club on September 23.

George Coetzee is not the only man who considers Pretoria Country Club to be his own stamping ground as Tristen Strydom showed on Thursday in shooting a brilliant seven-under-par 65 to join the first-round leader at the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Titleist Championship.

Coetzee has won two Tshwane Opens at the Waterkloof course and enjoyed plenty of junior success here, but Thursday was a struggle for him as he posted a 70 to move to seven-under for the tournament heading into Friday’s final round.

But while the 34-year-old’s record at Pretoria Country Club is well-known, Strydom showed his own liking for the parklands course with a phenomenal round that included eight birdies and an eagle. The next best round was a 67 by Louis Albertse that saw him make the cut.

The 23-year-old Strydom is in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour and has won less than R60 000 in 19 events.

“Man I am just absolutely loving it! To be playing on my home course, and to be feeling really confident, obviously helps a lot. I actually live on the course and all the members are really helping me and want me to play well. Glendower and Killarney are like this as well, all tough courses, but I just didn’t feel as comfortable on them. My goal was to just be in contention, so now I will just try and do the same thing in the final round.

“I putted really nicely and a lot more putts went in today. The momentum got rolling really nicely and then the eagle on nine took me to six-under. I know where not to hit it on this course and I was really good off the tee. The most important thing in the final round is just to have fun and it’s all good vibes out there, we are all just so happy we got the opportunity to be playing again,” Strydom said after his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour.

Strydom took advantage of going off at 7.45am in the fourth threeball, but as the weather cleared and the temperature increased significantly, so the greens speeded up and became particularly tough to hold. Coetzee, a fine iron player, said it was heavy going.

“It was all a bit scruffy, I didn’t hit the ball as well as in the first round and my game was just not all there, I was just not on it today. The pins were tricky, a lot of them were crazy, and the greens are fast so you end up going for the middle of the green at best. You have to play away from the pins and if you don’t focus, big numbers come into play. We were all putting 30 feet for birdie instead of from five feet.

“So I hit a lot of greens but I just tried to make no mistakes, I was maybe a bit too conservative. But a bogey on the first hole made me. In the end I’m actually quite happy to shoot something under-par,” Coetzee said.

Hennie O’Kennedy, the rookie who shared the overnight lead with Coetzee, had an even tougher day and notched up one of those big numbers with a nine on the par-five fourth, on his way to an 83 that saw him miss the cut by two strokes.

Another rookie, Clayton Mansfield of Durban Country Club, has played particularly well with rounds of 68 and 72 to lie in third place, three behind the leaders. Former SA Boys champion Pieter Moolman, of Benoni Lakes, shot an excellent 68 on Thursday to move into fourth on three-under-par, while the exciting young Jayden Schaper and nine-time Sunshine Tour winner Jaco Ahlers are on two-under-par.

George Coetzee is once again atop the leaderboard at Pretoria Country Club after shooting a five-under-par 67 in the first round of the Titleist Championship on Wednesday, but the seasoned pro of 13-and-a-half years’ standing was joined later in the day on the same score by rookie Hennie O’Kennedy.

The 34-year-old Coetzee has been winning tournaments at Pretoria Country Club since he was 10 years old and won two of his four European Tour titles here  – the Tshwane Opens of 2015 and 2018. And his bogey-free round on Wednesday put him one ahead of another rookie in Clayton Mansfield and two ahead of Sunshine Tour stalwarts Jaco Ahlers and Merrick Bremner.

But Coetzee warned that the fact he feels right at home on the parklands layout is no guarantee of ultimate success.

“It’s nice to be back here on a golf course I’m very comfortable on. I played with Ulrich van den Berg [74] today and he said to me, ‘You just know where to go here’, and after the round I thought, ‘Ja, I kind of do know where to go on this golf course’. If you play well and you’re in a good space, it helps.

“But there’s no such thing as a gimme in golf. If that was the case I would’ve won every tournament I’ve played at Pretoria Country Club, and I obviously haven’t. But it’s nice to finally get my first bogey-free round in tournament golf post-Lockdown, I haven’t expected much and I didn’t deliver much in the Series so far. It’s nice to finally post a decent number,” Coetzee said.

The Titleist Championship is the third 54-hole event of the Rise Up Series, a five-event schedule that represents the rising up of professional golf on many fronts, and O’Kennedy is one of several new faces marketing themselves as the potential future stars of South African golf.

O’Kennedy turned pro last year and enjoyed an excellent campaign on the Big Easy Tour, winning at Crown Mines and enjoying four other top-10 finishes. On Wednesday, as he celebrated his 24th birthday, O’Kennedy collected seven birdies and dropped just one shot on each of the nines in just his third Sunshine Tour event.

“It was a lovely birthday present and shooting in the 60s is always nice, it means there’s a bit less pressure in terms of making the cut. It was quite nice conditions today, not hot and not windy, although the cold weather meant we had to work on an extra three metres for every shot.

“I guess I am a big-hitter and that gave me a slight advantage in that I had short-irons coming in to the par-fives. But the layout of this course is so good, especially the par-fours, that you have to really think about your tee-shot. You can’t just take Driver everyhwere and you need to keep out of the bunkers.

“I think my round today showed that the Big Easy Tour is a great stepping-stone and preparation for the Sunshine Tour. The cut is often 30 players or less, which pepares you better because you’ve got to shoot low. Now I’m going to go home and rest and have some cake. I’ll stay away fom the beer until the tournament is done,” O’Kennedy, who hails from Stellenbosch Golf Club, said.