Ken Borland

This week’s South African Open at Sun City may be missing the vast majority of the overseas contingent, but claiming the title of the second-oldest national open in golf is still not going to be easy with four golfers ranked inside the world’s top-100 leading the field at the Gary Player Country Club from Thursday.

Defending champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the highest ranked of those at No.48, but Garrick Higgo will be breathing down his neck, as he is on the rankings in 57^th place, as the duo battle for the unofficial crown of being South Africa’s hottest young golfer.

Current form will probably count for more than the rankings though and the other two top-100 players in the field – Dean Burmester and Shaun Norris – are both in fine form and should pose a serious challenge.

Norris, who finished tied for third in last weekend’s Joburg Open, has been wonderfully consistent over the last few months. In 11 events on the Japanese Tour, he won the Japan Open, had three other top-10 finishes and five in the top-20. Norris has enjoyed considerable success in Asia through the years, but will want to show just how good he is on home turf in the SA Open.

Burmester finished in the top-10 at both the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, finishing in a career-best 18^th place on the European tour’s order of merit. He is another who is a better golfer than many may think.

Another contender to look out for is world number 111 Dylan Frittelli, who plays alongside Bezuidenhout and Higgo on the U.S. PGA Tour and will be angry with his second and final round in the Joburg Open, when he shot one-over-par and dropped out of contention after his first-round 67 in the event that was reduced to 36 holes by the weather and Covid travel restrictions.

Those travel bans from South Africa have decimated the field in terms of overseas competitors, but there are still a few who will be teeing it up at Sun City.

Welshman Rhys Enoch is a regular Sunshine Tour competitor and he won the Cape Town Open in 2018 and the KitKat Group Pro-Am in March this year.

Scotsman David Drysdale and Brazil’s Adilson da Silva are also seasoned Sunshine Tour campaigners, Johannes Veerman is an American who won the Czech Masters on the European Tour this year and played in both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

There are even still a couple of Englishmen in the field in Steve Surry and Chris Cannon.

The Netherlands, with former Protea Roelof van der Merwe leading the way in typical Bulldog fashion on his former home ground, and motivated by the anger caused by the scrapping of the Super League for World Cup qualification, will come out roaring in the first ODI against South Africa in Centurion on Friday, but Tabraiz Shamsi promised that the home side will also be sufficiently fired up to be at their best.

South Africa’s motivation will come from a combination of new faces being given precious opportunity at ODI level, and their own rather poor standing in the Super League at present: They are currently in ninth place. The 2023 World Cup will be a 10-team event, with the top teams from the Super League qualifying.

But earlier this week the ICC decided that the 2027 World Cup, of which South Africa will be co-hosts, will be a 14-team event with a separate, one-off qualifying tournament for non Full Members.

“The Netherlands have a few South African players and I’m sure they’ll have a point to prove,” Shamsi said. “And with the Super League being scrapped, the Netherlands could feel this is their last opportunity to make a statement.

“But we definitely won’t be taking it easy either, we have been preparing as hard as we can because we need points for World Cup qualification. The Netherlands also have some quality players, some of them play county cricket.

“It took me two-and-a-half years to play two ODIs in a row and now we have some new guys who will get to play three games in six days, so it’s a massive opportunity to establish yourself.

“So not much changes whether we’re playing England, India or the Netherlands, every game is an international and we’ll be trying to put in a performance that reflects that,” Shamsi said.

South Africa’s attack will be a pale imitation of their usual firepower, with Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje being rested, Lungi Ngidi testing positive for Covid and Lizaad Williams out injured. Although there are experienced seamers still available in Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius and the recalled Wayne Parnell, it is likely that the Proteas will rely heavily on spinners Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj.

The duo have enjoyed a purple patch in ODI cricket of late, taking 26 wickets between them in eight matches at an economy rate of just 4.68 runs per over.

SuperSport Park has a reputation for spinners being mown all over the ground, but the actual figures are not so clearcut. Shamsi brushes off the theory that spinners can’t shine on the Highveld.

“It’s weird that the chat is that the Wanderers and SuperSport Park are not spin-friendly, but I made my international career playing at Centurion and I don’t see any stigma for spinners there.

“Yes the ball flies, there are smaller boundaries and not as much assistance from the pitch, but we have developed different game-plans that take the pitch out of the equation if it doesn’t turn,” Shamsi said.

Temba Bavuma said on Tuesday that putting aside the emotion and focusing on the situation in the present helped him cope with the heavy pressures of leading the Proteas at the T20 World Cup.

The relatively new South African white-ball captain has drawn widespread praise for his handling of the usual off-field issues that plagued the team as well as his deft hand on the field as the Proteas exceeded expectations by just missing out on the semifinals on nett run-rate, despite winning four of their five group games.

“There’s always some type of pressure around me and I’ve learnt ways to deal with it. I put aside the emotion and deal with the issue at hand,” Bavuma said.

“The Quinton de Kock situation all happened quite quickly and there wasn’t really any time to consult anyone. I had to weigh up both sides and express an opinion.

“Sometimes it’s best when you don’t have too much time to think about things, you just speak to the merits of the matter at hand and that means you’ll be more authentic.

“It was always going to be a big responsibility to be captain and the pressure and expectation at a World Cup comes from all angles. But I have seen a shift in the energy and I sense that the backing and support for me is now there,” Bavuma said.

The skipper acknowledged that all the off-field noise surrounding the Proteas does eat the players up inside, but in a classic case of make-or-break, he said it strengthened the bond between the players, which was expressed in their never-say-die performances on the field.

“Matters off the field have put us under pressure, they have been challenging times but we have been able to get through them as a team. There were moments that could have broken us or pulled us together, and it turned out being more of the latter.

“I was put in a situation that was very hard to prepare for and I’m grateful that I got out of there. I now have a lot more confidence with the team in terms of trust and backing.

“I do believe we are in a better space as a team. We found a way to get together as a team and really fought for each other. That gave us the ability to play in those pressure moments, we did exceptionally well in those.

“There have been massive positives from this World Cup, even though we are now sitting at home watching on our screens, and we need to make sure we grow from strength-to-strength,” Bavuma said.

PORT EDWARD, KwaZulu-Natal (October 6) – The country’s leading golfers arrived at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club on Wednesday morning for the first round of the SunBet Challenge to find heavy rain pouring down, eventually leading to the postponement of the opening 18 holes.

The good news is that the Sunshine Tour have been able to push the finish to Saturday, so the R1 million event will remain a 54-hole tournament.

Tournament Director Gary Todd was hopeful of all three rounds being able to be played.

“We had to postpone the first round because of a waterlogged golf course. The golf course has had over 100 millimetres of rain over the last three days, and the water table is just too high at the moment. The forecast is good for the rest of the week and there is a bit of a breeze, so we are targeting a Saturday finish,” Todd said.

The first three-balls will tee-off at 6.40am on Thursday.