Ken Borland

Five South Africans are going to be teeing it up at the Masters tournament at Augusta from Thursday, but the bad news is that all but one of them have been going in the wrong direction in the world rankings and will be entering the first, and arguably most prestigious, Major of the year without good form behind them.

Erik van Rooyen is the South African golfer enjoying the best year thus far, playing with reasonable consistency to move from 65^th in the rankings at the start of the year to 62^nd at present, with five top-30 finishes in eight tournaments. His best performance came in the Dubai Desert Classic when he tied for fourth, so he at least carries some momentum into the tournament and is considered a dark horse in some quarters, even with that weird facial hair.

Louis Oosthuizen is always the South African golfer who attracts the most attention, especially given his stellar record in Majors, but this week he will be having more eyes than ever in his general direction because he is going to be playing in the same three-ball as Tiger Woods, who is making a dramatic return to golf following his serious car accident 14 months ago in which he suffered serious leg injuries.

Oosthuizen is typically under-the-radar leading into Majors, and has slipped from 13^th to 15^th in the world, with two top-30 finishes in only five events. But South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer had an outstanding 2021 in the Majors, finishing tied-third, second, tied-second and tied-26^th in the Masters. He was the runner-up at Augusta in 2012, famously won by Bubba Watson.

Charl Schwartzel is another former champion who is going to be playing this week, but the 2011 winner has dropped to 169^th in the world rankings and has missed the cut in his last six tournaments. He did, however, finish third in the 2017 Masters.

Garrick Higgo is another South African who is hoping to overcome a run of bad form as he has missed his last three cuts. In fact he has not finished in the top-20 since his breakthrough win at the Palmetto Championship last year.

The fifth South African, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, is at least going to the Masters with some reasonable form behind him, finishing in the top-30 four times in nine events this year. He made the cut in both his previous starts at Augusta.

Scottie Scheffler is the new No.1 golfer in the world and the hottest competitor coming in, but he will be challenged strongly in the tipping stakes by Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.

Cameron Smith and Xander Schauffele are dark horses in the 90-stroing field, while one can never discount Dustin Johnson.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be hoping the critics keep mum about two things after their thumping 51-3 win over the Dragons in their United Rugby Championship match in Durban at the weekend: their poor finishing and the form of flyhalf Curwin Bosch.

A much more clinical display by the Sharks saw them score four tries and be awarded two penalty tries, while Bosch gave an assured all-round performance and his fine kicking saw him succeed with four conversions and three penalties.

“Being able to convert in the gold zone was what we worked on all week and we spoke about not giving the Dragons any soft moments,” Everitt said. “And we tightened up and gave them nothing.

“We were able to put our whole game together. We’ve been managing the game well and winning the territory battles, but now we were clinical in the important areas too.

“Curwin has made 17 out of 19 tackles but the poor guy never gets compliments, he just gets ridiculed. Last week he missed one kick from in front and that was the talking point.

“But he has managed the game very well and his field-kicking was outstanding. It was one of his better games, after lots of criticism, and I’m very happy for him,” Everitt said.

Like a teenager anxious to make sure they have a prom date, the Sharks are grimly hanging on to eighth place in the URC standings and next week’s derby against the high-flying Lions is a crucial match, especially since both the Stormers and Bulls have finned past them on the log.

“It’s about building momentum and a win next week would be big for us, massive,” Everitt admitted. “Winning by the scoreline we did brings confidence and we have a really good platform for the next few games.“

Heinrich Klaasen continued his rampant form of late as he roared to a career-best 153 off just 127 balls to lead the Northerns Titans to a 32-run win over the Free State Knights in their CSA One-Day Cup match at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday.

The victory means Northerns also raced to the top of the log after winning all four of their games thus far. They lead the North-West Dragons, who have won three out of five, by two points.

Having been sent in to bat, Northerns racked up a formidable 341/6, built around Klaasen’s ferocious innings, which included nine fours and seven sixes. His second successive century in the 50-over competition has not only rushed the Titans to the top of the log, but will keep him in the conversation for the Proteas team.

Free State, led by Migael Pretorius (10-2-40-2) bowled well up front and reduced Northerns to 15/2 in the first four overs. So Klaasen’s first job was to repair the innings, which he did in tandem with Neil Brand, who made a fluent 87 off 104 deliveries.

The duo put on 167 for the third wicket in 31 overs and Klaasen then unfurled some great attacking strokes in the company of Sibonelo Makhnaya (37).

Free State’s chase was off to a blazing start as they scored 82 runs in the first 10 overs. But the erratic Northerns bowlers also managed to pick up four wickets in that time, three of them to fast bowler Bosch, who also conceded 42 runs in his first five overs.

Four more wickets fell in the middle overs and the Knights had to rely on the go-go-gadget skills of their veteran skipper Pite van Biljon to keep their small hopes of victory alive. The 35-year-old was tenacious to the extreme, running hard and fighting his way to a brilliant 127 not out off 110 balls, with 14 fours and four sixes, an innings full of fine strokes and shot-selection.

Fast bowler Junior Dala was only able to bowl four overs due to injury, leaving Northerns with a makeshift attack, but left-arm spinner Neil Brand, who picked up the extra overs, kept chipping away and finished with 4/61 in 10 overs, as Free State were bowled out for 309 in the 45^th over.

Down the road at the Wanderers, the Central Gauteng Lions used a three-wicket win with three overs to spare over the KZN Dolphins to jump into third place in the standings, two points behind North-West.

Sent in to bat, KZN crashed to 21/4 as Sisanda Magala (10-1-42-2) and Malusi Siboto (10-0-29-2) used the new ball well. It was Andile Phehlukwayo, with a feisty 100 not out, and Eathan Bosch (68) who lifted the Dolphins to 224/8, despite Codi Yusuf taking 4/26.

On a tricky pitch, the Lions slipped to 117/5 after opener Josh Richards scored 44, but Dominic Hendricks dug in for 43 and wicketkeeper Connor Esterhuizen made a great debut with 52 off 58 balls to all but finish the chase with Sisanda Magala (28* off 24).

Theunis de Bruyn decided today was the day to return to form as his commanding, unbeaten innings of 92 put the Northerns Titans in a strong position after the second day of their crucial CSA 4-Day Series match against the Central Gauteng Lions at SuperSport Park on Saturday.

Replying to the Lions’ first innings of 270, Northerns had reached 261/3 when bad light brought the day’s action to a close with just over an hour still scheduled to be played.

De Bruyn, who had scored just 67 runs in four previous innings in the competition this season, came to the crease in the second hour of the day following opener Grant Mokoena’s dismissal for 25, bowled by arguably the ball of the day from Cody Yousuf. The former Proteas batsman played himself in solidly, reaching 16 not out by lunch.

The Titans’ other opener, Neil Brand, had reached a composed half-century by then and the pair of lanky batsmen rammed home their advantage after lunch as they took their second-wicket partnership to 95 before Brand was caught at a deepish square-leg off Malusi Siboto for 81. The left-hander played an excellent innings, but greater things beckoned.

De Bruyn batted on and was left on the brink of his first century since May 2021 when he lashed 113 not out off just 64 balls for SA A against Zimbabwe A. He has faced 168 deliveries and struck eight fours and four imperious sixes.

Heinrich Klaasen (35) helped him in a third-wicket stand of 55 and Sibonelo Makhanya (20*) has so far added 41 with De Bruyn for the fourth wicket.

The Eastern Province Warriors, who are also trying to overtake the Lions at the top of the log, were also frustrated by the weather in Bloemfontein as they reached 166/3 in reply to the Free State Knights’ 227 all out.

Rudi Second (59*) and Diego Rosier (50*) had both scored half-centuries and shared an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 99 as EP also put themselves in a powerful position. If they win their last match and the Lions lose to the Titans, then the Warriors will claim the four-day title.

Earlier, Free State had resumed on 198/7 and once Patrick Botha was caught behind off Tiaan van Vuuren for a defiant and dazzling 123, the rest of the innings folded quickly.

The same bowlers did the damage for Eastern Province as on the first day, with Van Vuuren taking 4/46 in 19 overs and Akhona Mnyaka (15-1-54-3) and Mthiwekhaya Nabe (16-3-45-3) sharing the other six wickets.

Scores in brief for other matches

KZN Dolphins 422 (Grant Roelofsen 49, Keegan Petersen 123, Andile Phehlukwayo 107, Prenelan Subrayen 51; Achille Cloete 3/58, Shaun von Berg 3/134) v Boland 129/1 (Pieter Malan 74*, Stiaan van Zyl 40*).

Western Province 576 (Jonathan Bird 128, Yaseen Vallie 44, Gavin Kaplan 73, Daniel Smith 153, George Linde 70; Delano Potgieter 6/87) v North-West 124/3 (Lesego Senokwane 57*; George Linde 2/33).