Ken Borland

Golf tournaments are probably second only to weddings when it comes to people questioning whether all the expense is justified, but the City of Tshwane on Tuesday revealed some impressive figures in terms of the return on investment in the Tshwane Open, which was being launched at Pretoria Country Club.

This year’s event will be held from February 11-14 and will be the first of at least two more stagings of the co-sanctioned event in Tshwane, with the city council having renewed their contract and the prizemoney being increased to R18.5 million.

Lee-Anne Bac, a researcher at Grant Thornton who was hired by the City of Tshwane to measure the impact of staging the tournament, said the benefit to the economy over the last two years has been around R140 million, with R39 million direct spend in Tshwane, while Repucom, the sports marketing and sponsorships experts, say the exposure the Tshwane Open received last year was worth more than $8 million.

As Selwyn Nathan, the executive director of the Sunshine Tour, pointed out: “Tshwane haven’t had to pay millions for their name change from Pretoria, like Datsun did when they changed to Nissan, because in the four years of this tournament, hundreds of people every day are asking ‘Where is Tshwane?’ and googling it.”

“The Tshwane Open has exposed our brand to 230 million households around the globe, which can only help grow our economy. People ask why we don’t just spend R30 million on supplying basic services, but the more enduring solution to our socio-economic problems is to grow the economy. Just dishing out social grants won’t work and we need to free people from relying on the state to make them succeed,” Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the executive mayor of the city, said at Tuesday’s launch.

George Coetzee will be back to defend his title on the course he grew up on, while Charl Schwartzel will make a welcome return to action having missed the SA and Joburg Opens due to a virulent stomach virus.

But the new guard of South African golf is making its presence felt and Brandon Stone, Haydn Porteous, Zander Lombard and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will all be teeing it up at Pretoria Country Club.

“I would like to see George win again because he’s been a great ambassador for us, but Zander and Christiaan were runners-up in the two previous co-sanctioned events and Brandon, Charl and Haydn have already been winners this year. If someone new wins, then it provides great opportunity for them with a two-year exemption on the European Tour. It’s a stepping stone to competing internationally and making a name for themselves,” Nathan said.

George Coetzee’s game may have been “all over the show” but the Tshwane Open winner will go into the second round of the Chase to the Investec Cup final in pole position after the opening day at Millvale Private Retreat near Koster outside Rustenburg on Thursday.

Coetzee is the co-leader after the first round with South Africa’s top-ranked golfer, Charl Schwartzel, after both fired brilliant four-under-par 68s on a tough course in a gusty wind.

An incredible run of eagle at the par-five seventh, followed by four straight birdies saw Coetzee go into the lead on five-under-par, but a bogey on 12 followed by a double-bogey on the par-three 13^th saw him slip behind Schwartzel, before drawing level with the 2011 Masters champion with birdies on the 15^th and 16^th holes.

The 28-year-old Coetzee was in 11^th place in the Chase to the Investec Cup standings, but with none of the top-10 able to break par at Millvale, he is now projected to finish first and win the bonus pool if the leaderboard remains the same.

“I don’t know how I shot four-under because my game was all over the show. This is not the easiest course to play in the wind and the speed of the greens was very fast and the placement of the pins meant you had to really plot your way around the course, it was hard work,” Coetzee said.

Schwartzel is chasing a consistent swing ahead of the Masters from April 9 and his game was looking almost spot-on under the testing conditions at Millvale.

“For a while now I’ve been working out my swing and it’s getting better and better. It’s a matter of trusting it out on the course, because it doesn’t matter on the range. So today was a good round in hard conditions, it was challenging and anything under par was good,” Schwartzel said.

It’s been a big year for Trevor Fisher Junior and he could cap it all in the Chase to the Investec Cup Final over the weekend as he goes into the defence of his title at number one in the standings and with his eyes set once again on the R3.5 million bonus pool first prize.

A prize of R3.5 million is at stake as the Chase to the Investec Cup Final tees off at the Millvale Private Retreat west of Rustenburg on Thursday with Trevor Fisher Junior on top of the standings with a 111.73-point lead.

But his defence of his title – as well as the first place on the standings he achieved last year – will be under attack from classy golfers like Charl Schwartzel, George Coetzee and Morten Orum Madsen, as well as in-form locals like Jacques Blaauw, Dean Burmester, Keith Horne and Wallie Coetsee.

With 1500 points on offer for the winner of the Chase to the Investec Cup Final, and 180 points guaranteed for last place, Fisher Junior can be overtaken by 21 of the 30-man field for the big prize when the tournament ends on Sunday at the Lost City.

Apart from Fisher Junior, who won the Africa Open two weeks ago and has done so well in the co-sanctioned events that he is 23^rd in the Race to Dubai, the other golfer coming into the tournament with great form is Dean Burmester, who had top-20 finishes in the Dimension Data Pro-Am and the Joburg, Africa and Tshwane Opens.

Coetzee, in 11^th place in the standings, 829.15 points behind Fisher Junior, put some poor form behind him as he won the Tshwane Open in fine style last weekend and the world number 67 led going into the final round of the Investec Cup final last year so he has a score to settle.

There is plenty of water around Millvale to have errant golfers in trouble, while the greens are slick and, given that Gary Player was one of the designers, canny bunkering is no surprise.

With overseas players like Andy Sullivan and Kevin Phelan, and locals like Branden Grace and Thomas Aiken turning down the chance to play for the bonus pool, Sunshine Tour regulars like Justin Harding, Louis de Jager, Jbe’ Kruger and Chris Swanepoel have earned a ticket to the lucrative summer finale in North-West.