Ken Borland

A South African may not have won a Major title since Ernie Els triumphed at the Open in 2012, but any suggestion our golf is going to the dogs has been refuted by the superb displays of our golfers around the world over the weekend.

Between them, South Africa’s four top performing golfers over the weekend – Louis Oosthuizen, Garrick Higgo, Ashleigh Buhai and Els himself – took home nearly R23 million in prizemoney. And that excludes the cash raked in by the top-five finishes of both George Coetzee and Retief Goosen.

The Major event of the weekend was the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club outside New York and the powerful Bryson de Chambeau unleashed his dogs of war in the final round, in which he was the only golfer to shoot under-par, to win by a massive six strokes.

Oosthuizen, who was four off the pace at the start of the round, was soon out of real contention for the title as De Chambeau began dismembering the course on his way to a 67, and his challenge ran out of steam with a three-over 73 on the final day. Nevertheless it was good enough for the 2010 Open champion to finish alone in third, two behind second-placed Matthew Wolff.

Oosthuizen took home more than R14.2 million for his efforts and he now has six top-three finishes in the Majors, including being runner-up at least once in all of them.

The PGA Tour Champions is a lucrative way for professional golfers who have turned 50 and qualified for the seniors tour to bulk up their medical aid and Els took home more than R2.6 million at the weekend when he finished third in the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.

Unfortunately Els, who was the leader going into the final round, suffered another of his putting breakdowns as he missed a two-foot putt for par on the last that would have secured him a place in the playoff with eventual winner Jim Furyk and Jerry Kelly.

Goosen finished in fourth place, two shots adrift of Els.

Buhai (nee’ Simon) did get into a playoff in her event on the LPGA Tour, shooting a brilliant seven-under-par 65 in the final round to join Major winner Georgia Hall in the showdown for the Cambria Portland Classic title at Columbia Edgewater.

Unfortunately, Buhai’s putter, which had come to her aid numerous times earlier in the day, let her down on the second extra hole as she missed a par putt to deny her her maiden LPGA title.

The good news though for the three-time SA Open winner is that she has earned herself a place in the U.S. Open in December and she won nearly R2.7 million.

There was at least one South African winner at the weekend though and that was young rising star Garrick Higgo, who claimed his maiden European Tour title by winning the Portugal Open at Royal Obidos. In just his seventh start on the tour, a marvellous seven-under-par 65 drove the 21-year-old left-hander to the victory, Higgo beating Spaniard Pep Angles by one stroke.

Higgo was superb with the Driver all weekend, and he did not make a bogey in his last 26 holes, dropping just three shots all tournament.

While Higgo took home a little more than R3 million for his life-changing win, Coetzee continued to capitalise on his fine form by finishing in a tie for third, four shots back.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a really fickle broker for Branden Grace’s Major hopes in 2020, first forcing him out of the PGA Championship and now getting him a late spot in the U.S. Open which tees off at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York on Thursday.

Grace had found some great form the week before the PGA Championship and was tied for second midway through the Barracuda Championship on August 1 when he started showing symptoms of Covid-19, had a test done and it came back positive. The 10-day quarantine period meant he missed the first Major of this weird year and it also cost him the chance of qualifying for the U.S. Open.

By the time the cut-off was made for the United States Golf Association’s showpiece event, on August 23, Grace had slipped to 91 in the world rankings due to his two weeks of inactivity and was first alternate for the U.S. Open.

But then last weekend Scottie Scheffler, named Rookie of the Year with seven top-10 finishes and a 59 in the Northern Trust Open, withdrew from the U.S. Open after himself testing positive for Covid-19 and Grace has replaced him in the 144-man field.

“It’s really unfortunate for Scottie, for him to go through what he’s going to go through after having such a great rookie season. I just got lucky with this one and the circle has gone around a little bit. I was really disappointed with the way things initially happened, when I was playing well and then it pretty much cost me the spot to get into the U.S. Open.

“And I couldn’t compete the next week at the PGA, missing that one I was really bummed. But this is my favourite major, the U.S. Open,” Grace said earlier this week at Winged Foot, an iconic course rated one of the toughest tests in golf.

There are seven South African golfers in all teeing it up in the first U.S Open to be held in September since 1913 with debuts for Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Shaun Norris and JC Ritchie, who qualified by virtue of winning last season’s Sunshine Tour order of merit.

This week provides a second U.S. Open start for Erik van Rooyen and Justin Harding, while Louis Oosthuizen will be gunning for his second major title, a second place in the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay being one of four runners-up finishes for the 2010 Open champion.

The 120^th U.S. Open, which will be played without spectators, offers $1 188 000 dollars for the champion.

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.