Ken Borland

This year’s Tshwane Open will really be played in the heart of the city after the announcement yesterday that the co-sanctioned golf tournament will be hosted by the Pretoria Country Club in Waterkloof from March 12-15.

The Pretoria Country Club is 105 years old and is renowned for being a quality sports and social venue in the capital. Set in the magnificent surrounds of Waterkloof, the Country Club boasts a par-71 parklands golf course, designed by the Gary Player Group.

Sunshine Tour commissioner Selwyn Nathan explained that the tournament has been moved from Copperleaf near Centurion after two years because the Tshwane Metro would like to see the European Tour event move around the city every couple of years. Nathan said he hoped Pretoria Country Club would also be hosts for at least two years.

Subesh Pillay, the MMC responsible for Economic Development and Planning, explained why the City of Tshwane were investing in the tournament again.

“We took a bit of flak initially because many people asked why we are spending money on golf when there are backlogs in housing, electricity and water. But the decision was not taken lightly and we did it because of what the tournament meant for the city, because it added value.

“Tourism is the biggest contributor to our economy and the Tshwane Open received coverage in 47 countries last year and it reached 217 million households. The global media coverage we received was worth $67 million and the direct impact to the city was R44.5 million. Plus 202 temporary jobs were created by the tournament in 2014,” Pillay said.

Pretoria Country Club is not by any means long by professional standards at 6459 metres, but she will be able to protect herself through tight fairways and rough that can be brutal at the end of summer.

Nathan said the Tshwane Open provided an important platform for the rising stars of the game both in South Africa and from Europe.

“It’s an enormous platform for young players, it tests their skills and enables them to compete all over the world. Look at our previous two winners: Dawie van der Walt was nowhere in world terms and now he’s playing in both the United States and Europe and is having big success; Ross Fisher, last year’s winner, is now second on the Race to Dubai,” Nathan said. “I can almost guarantee that whoever wins this year will also go on to great heights.”

Nathan said he was optimistic Fisher would return to defend his title, while most of South Africa’s regular European Tour campaigners should also tee it up because there is no other competing tournament for them on the schedule that week.

“I have commitments from a big group of European Tour golfers, there’s no reason for them to be anywhere else that week plus there’s prizemoney of 1.5 million euro – about R18 million – for them to play for,” Nathan said.

These have been interesting times for the organisers of the co-sanctioned events that highlight the summer golf season in South Africa, but the Sunshine Tour is expected to release details of at least the first half of the lucrative schedule this week.

The delay has mainly been due to the uncertainty of when to stage the South African Open, the flagship event of the summer and one for which the Sunshine Tour recently regained the commercial rights.

Unfortunately, the European Tour shifted their Volvo World Matchplay Championship from May to this week in the schedule, pushing their Tour Championship out to November 20-23, the week which had been used by the SA Open in recent years.

In what they described as “a shift in golf sponsorship strategy to focus on customers”, this will be the last time Volvo sponsor the famous matchplay event and they have also pulled the plug on the European Tour’s tournament of winners, the Volvo Golf Champions, which has been hosted by South Africa for the last three years.

While the loss of a high-profile European Tour event like that is obviously a great pity, it has left a gap in the schedule that could well now be filled by the SA Open.

January 8-11, 2015, is now the likely date of the SA Open and the talk amongst the pros is that Glendower Golf Club will once again host the prestigious event, for which big developments are expected in the near future.

The Sunshine Tour could lose another co-sanctioned event with the Nelson Mandela Championship in doubt due to both sponsorship and scheduling issues, taking the number of European Tour events in South Africa this summer down to six.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge will continue its strong new relationship with the European Tour from December 4-7 at Sun City, with the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek being held the following week.

Insiders say the Joburg, Africa and Tshwane Opens should all take place next year, although scheduling challenges do exist.

If the Nelson Mandela Championship does get the go-ahead, it could be staged at the Wild Coast Sun, moving from Durban, according to the professionals.

Ross Fisher celebrates victory for the first time in nearly four years

A top-class display of patient golf saw Ross Fisher claim a three-stroke victory in the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Sunday.

Fisher began the final day with a five-shot lead but had to endure an impressive challenge from Northern Irishman Michael Hoey and also some pressure from Spaniard Carlos del Moral before posting a two-under-par 70 to finish on 20-under-par and claim a fifth European Tour victory after a winning drought of nearly four years.

The Englishman laboured around the front nine in one-under 35, his iron play and putting lacking the brilliant sharpness of the previous two days, and Hoey closed to within a stroke after sinking a 25-foot birdie putt on the 11^th hole, to follow up an eagle on the par-five fourth and birdies at the first and eighth holes.

But Hoey then saw his approach shot on the par-four 12^th slide into the water hazard protecting the green, leading to a double-bogey, and he eventually finished with a 68 to trail Fisher by three strokes.

Del Moral twice closed to within two shots of Fisher, but erred crucially with bogeys on the 14^th and 17^th holes, finishing alone in fourth place on 16-under.

Young South African Danie van Tonder produced the round of the day with a 66 to finish tied in second place with Hoey, taking R1.7 million from his best-ever finish on the summer tour.

Fisher sealed victory on the 578-metre 15^th hole when he rolled in a superb eagle putt from 20 feet to give him a four-shot lead.

“I was 263 metres from the pin after a real good drive and then I really ripped a hybrid, probably the flushest I’ve hit for a long time. That was a massive turning point, I couldn’t buy a putt before that, and then I didn’t have to push any more, I didn’t have to take driver coming in,” Fisher said after his triumph.

“I knew patience would be the biggest thing today, just hitting the green and making the other guys get birdies. And Mike hitting into the water on 12 was also a big thing, it gave me a breather,” the 33-year-old said.

Fisher also had to handle the additional challenges posed by almost-continual rain and then a blustery wind.

“The weather wasn’t kind and it wasn’t quite the fireworks and spectacular golf I hoped for. The eagle on four by Mike really pushed me, but I felt like I was giving myself chances and the birdie on seven was a very good one, there were many bogeys there today. I then felt I had some shots to spare because the back nine has been very kind to me,” he said.

The 2010 Ryder Cup player is now back into the top 65 on the world rankings and closer to his goal of making the top 50 and once again competing in the majors and the famous team event between Europe and the United States.

Behind the impressive Van Tonder, Hennie Otto, the 2011 SA Open champion, was the next best South African, a 68 in the final round leaving him alone in fifth place on 15-under.

http://citizen.co.za/136519/fisher-claims-three-stroke-victory-tshwane-open/

Englishman Ross Fisher stretched his lead to five strokes as he fired a five-under-par 67 in the third round of the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Saturday.

Fisher had started the penultimate day with just a one-shot lead over Morten Orum Madsen, and two ahead of Simon Dyson and Carlos del Moral, but the 2010 Ryder Cup player birdied the sixth, seventh and ninth holes to reach the turn in 33 and then collected two more birdies on the back nine as he took firm control of the R22.3 million tournament.

The 33-year-old will go into the final round on 18-under-par, with his nearest challengers being Northern Irishman Michael Hoey on 13-under, Dyson and Del Moral on 12-under and seven golfers on 11-under, including South Africans Merrick Bremner, Hennie Otto, Danie van Tonder, Trevor Fisher Junior and Darren Fichardt.

On a wet, miserable day, no one was really able to make a move on Fisher, with compatriot Robert Rock’s seven-under-par 65 the best round of the day and that moved him into a tie for 12^th on 10-under.

Madsen, who won the South African Open in Johannesburg in November, unravelled badly and his round was like a disaster movie, finishing with three successive bogeys to leave him on nine-under for the tournament, nine strokes behind Fisher, and in a tie for 15^th.

Fisher, who began his third round with two bogeys in his first five holes, said his aim in the final round would be to produce birdies and thereby eliminate the threat of the sort of exciting come-from-behind charge the promoters of the tournament would love.

“Five shots is a nice lead, but I expect good scores behind me in the final round, especially if the weather is hot and sunny. So I’ll be aiming to shoot in the 60s again, I’ll play aggressively and make as many birdies as possible. In that way I’ll put heat on the others and they’ll have to shoot something silly to catch me,” Fisher said after his third-successive sub-68 round.

Fisher, a prodigious driver of the ball, has overcome the longest course in European Tour history with his excellence off the tee and some brilliant long-iron play, hitting 86% of the greens in regulation. When he errs, he knows his short game is good enough to make up for it, as shown by fine up-and-downs on the 14^th and 18^th holes.

Hoey managed to maintain the momentum from his second round, in which he collected seven successive birdies on the back nine, to shoot a 69 on Friday and climb even further up the leaderboard.

“I kept my rhythm well from yesterday and I was able to tap into those seven birdies in a row. The course is long and wet, and I was very happy with my putting.

“I had a couple of sloppy swings and misjudgements, but it’s easier to accept those when you’re putting well and scoring well,” Hoey said after his round that included three bogeys and six birdies.

Both Dyson and Del Moral struggled to get going on Saturday, shooting one-under-par 71s, and Fisher is clearly going to be extremely hard to beat in the final round.

“I’m playing as good as ever, similar to when I contended in the majors, and my goal is to get back into the top 50 in the world – I feel I belong there. To win here would be a massive confidence boost and a step in the right direction,” Fisher said.

http://citizen.co.za/136238/fisher-extends-lead-tshwane-open/