Ken Borland

Christiaan Bezuidenhout was named on Tuesday as the only South African in compatriot Trevor Immelman’s team for the Presidents Cup, and the 28-year-old debutant believes he has a game tailormade for the tough Quail Hollow layout on which they will take on the United States from September 22-25.

Bezuidenhout joins K.H. Lee, Sebastian Munoz, Taylor Pendrith, Si Woo Kim and Cameron Davis as a captain’s pick for the International Team on a dangerous course, especially down the stretch. Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Corey Connors, Mito Pereira and Adam Scott were automatic qualifiers.

Bezuidenhout has won three times on the European Tour and finished 51^st on his just-completed first full year on the U.S. PGA Tour. That will be crucial experience.

“Most golf courses in the States are a lot longer than what we usually play and it’s a completely different style of golf to what we’re used to in Europe and internationally,” Bezuidenhout said on Tuesday. “They are set up tougher, they are narrower, with higher rough. So you need a good scrambling game and I feel I am a really good putter, one of the best on tour [ranked sixth last season].

“Off the tee I’m pretty straight, I hit a lot of fairways and my scramble around the greens is pretty good.

“We had a two-day training camp in Charlotte and practised a bit on Quail Hollow. It was the first time I’d seen it, but it was a lovely couple of days,” Bezuidenhout said.

While some international golfers may have been torn between playing in the Presidents Cup or defecting to LIV Golf – and Immelman lost the services of ‘rebels’ like Cameron Smith, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Abraham Ancer – Bezuidenhout has had his sights set on the tournament for a while. He will be one of the golfers Immelman described as being really hungry to beat the Americans.

“It’s a massive honour for me to be selected because the Presidents Cup has been a definite goal for me for quite a few years,” Bezuidenhout said. “The International team was so close to victory in Melbourne in 2019, which was really exciting.

“I played really hard to make the team three years ago, but just missed out. Now I can look back at all the other South Africans who have played in the past, and it’s a big honour for me to make my debut.

“My first memory of the tournament was in 2003 when I was nine years old and I remember Ernie Els and Tiger Woods in the playoff. I always watch it on TV, I’ve followed the event closely.

“We are definite underdogs, but there is a great vibe in the team, it’s a great bunch of guys and everyone is so supportive. The team spirit is high and everyone’s excited,” Bezuidenhout said.

Lood de Jager’s Springbok career has been a saga of triumph and disappointment, but the 28-year-old still counts himself as being fortunate and accepts his many injury problems as just being part of his journey.

The East Rand product will play his 50^th Test for South Africa against Argentina on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, the sixth specialist lock to reach that milestone. De Jager made his debut off the bench on June 14, 2014 against Wales in Durban and has now played in two World Cups, his outstanding displays in the 2015 edition winning him the SA Player of the Year title.

But he has had more than his fair share of injuries, especially in the shoulder region. De Jager missed the start of the Rassie Erasmus reign in 2018 because he had torn his pectoral muscle in Super Rugby that May, but did make two appearances off the bench on the end-of-year tour of Great Britain.

He injured the other shoulder in the triumphant 2019 World Cup final, and then the same shoulder went in September 2020. He had just returned to the field for the Sale Sharks in April when he suffered a freak training accident that broke his fibula and tore his knee ligaments. He did exceptionally well just to make the Springbok squad for the British and Irish Lions series, but of course was one of the players who came down with Covid.

But De Jager’s determination saw him return for the Springboks in the second Test, and his arrival in the second half certainly changed the fortunes of the team, especially in the lineouts.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of some real highs but some real lows too. I guess I’ve had a few more injuries than normal, but it’s just part of my journey and I must just adapt and come back stronger. I’m not a naturally fit person so it’s quite hard to regain that Test match intensity. Training does not come close to game intensity and I had just come back from injury when I caught Covid.

“But if you look at the history of Springbok rugby, lock has always been one of the positions with the best players, so I have a massive responsibility to go out and perform and make the jersey proud,” De Jager said this week.

De Jager’s positivity brings thousand of lux of shining happiness to the Springbok squad and coach Jacques Nienaber had nothing but praise for the giant with the metal shoulders.

“I take my hat off to him for all the ups and downs he has been through – that shoulder injury in the World Cup and then an unfortunate leg injury. He is slowly getting back to his full match-fitness, he’s played around 200 minutes now and I am very happy for him. It’s fantastic when players reach milestone games, that can only be good for us,” Nienaber said.

Highveld Lions all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius faces stiff competition from all the other all-rounders currently in the Proteas picture, but the 28-year-old says he is going to channel his focus into the Sunfoil Series and try to separate himself from the rest on the basis of his batting.

Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Vernon Philander and Pretorius have all played for the Proteas across the three different formats in the last year, but Pretorius is the only one who has a first-class batting average of more than 40 (42.46).

Last season was his most productive with the bat as he averaged 52.40 in the Sunfoil Series and he is eager to continue that form when the four-day competition starts next week, with the Lions opening their campaign on Tuesday by hosting the Warriors at the Wanderers.

“I would love to play more cricket for the Proteas, especially Test cricket, but I’m just going to concentrate on the Sunfoil Series and hope I perform there. I don’t know Ottis Gibson at all or what sort of players he likes, only time will tell. So I’ll just go back to my processes, if I get those right then I can perform and from there I hope I get selected.

“I was quite pleased with last year’s four-day competition, I batted up the order at six or seven and I was under pressure, basically coming in at 60 for four about a dozen times! But I really liked the opportunity to bat longer, for 80 overs, because normally I come in needing to take the game forward.

“I think I’m more of a 50/50 all-rounder, maybe even more of a batting all-rounder, than a bowling all-rounder, so I want to put myself in a different bracket and replicate what I did in last season’s Sunfoil Series, but keep the same bowling standard. It’s unbelievable to have four other quality all-rounders around and I am close to all of them as mates. But I’m not competing against them, I’m competing against myself because we’re all different cricketers,” Pretorius said.

The Randfontein-born Pretorius, whose consistent accuracy and skilful use of the ball are his greatest bowling attributes, believes the Lions have the resources to lift themselves from a fifth-place finish last season back into contenders for the Sunfoil Series title.

“Things are looking up and guys like Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks and Stephen Cook should know that they are close to the national side, so they don’t need any extra motivation. Beuran Hendricks, Omphile Ramela and Craig Alexander have come over to us and will add a lot of value.

“This year there’s competition for batting spots and the older guys know they have to perform or the younger batsmen will come for them. We’ve lost Temba Bavuma, but it doesn’t feel as much of a shock as it would have three years ago and Omphile will add a lot of stability,” Pretorius said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20170916/282333975077119

Englishman Andy Sullivan said he would be happy to play all his golf in Johannesburg after he added the Joburg Open title on Sunday to the South African Open he won seven weeks ago at Glendower, the 28-year-old sealing a two-shot triumph with a brilliant 66.

Sullivan won the national open in a dramatic playoff with Charl Schwartzel, impressing with his happy demeanour despite the tension down the stretch, and yesterday he was once again relaxed as he dropped just one shot in making up a three-shot deficit.

“I’ve been working hard with my coach and psychologist, but enjoying myself too. Every time I’m in contention, I wish I could bottle those emotions, it’s an unbelievable feeling and I seem to thrive on it.

“I wish I could play in Johannesburg every week! I felt really good down the stretch at Glendower and even better today. There wasn’t any pressure, I was very relaxed and it was just me and ‘Macca’ [caddy Sean McDonagh] having a laugh, a Saturday afternoon stroll on the golf course,” Sullivan said after his second European Tour title.

There were a handful of golfers in contention in the final round, with the lead changing hands several times, but the most serious challenges came from fellow Englishmen Anthony Wall and David Howell.

But both made a couple of crucial errors in the closing holes.

Wall bogeyed 15 after his approach slid off the green into the reeds surrounding the dam in front of the putting surface, while his drive on the final hole went under the trees on the left, forcing him to settle for par when he really needed at least a birdie to put pressure on Sullivan.

Howell sent his drive into the water on 14 which led to bogey, and then missed a crucial five-foot birdie putt on 15.

Sullivan himself was holding a tenuous one-shot lead when he found the water with his approach shot on the par-four 11^th, but a brilliant 25-foot pressure putt saw him limit the damage to just a bogey.

The man from the English midlands then closed out a thrilling win with a top-class finish, birdies on 15 and 18 sealing victory.

There was a tense moment on 18 when he left his eagle putt eight feet short of the hole and was left with a tricky, and crucial, birdie putt.

“I knew if I got a birdie on the last I’d have a really good chance of winning, but I left myself with a bit more than I would have liked. But I did not believe my second win would come so quickly, I thought it was unbelievable to win the SA Open but this is even better,” a beaming Sullivan said.

Overnight leader Wallie Coetsee missed several birdie putts as he shot a one-under-par 71 and finished in the bunch of runners-up on 15-under – Wall, Howell, Ireland’s Kevin Phelan and fellow South African Jaco van Zyl.

The iron play of Coetsee was just not sharp enough to get him closer to the flags, and he also missed out on one of the entries to the Open Championship which went to Sullivan, Wall and Howell after the tie-breaker of world golf ranking had been applied.

“I’ve never played in a major championship before, so obviously that’s massive. It will also be nice to put a stop to the stick of my manager and caddy, who have both played in majors, and it’s at St Andrew’s, the home of golf, on top of that,” Sullivan said.

One of the biggest smiles in golf is only getting bigger.