Ken Borland

Lanky Englishman Chris Wood will be back at next week’s Africa Open at East London Golf Club for the first time since 2012 hoping to right what he might feel was the injustice of 2011, when he lost in a three-way playoff with Louis Oosthuizen and Spain’s Manuel Quiros.

Wood fired a four-under-par 68 on the final day to catch Oosthuizen and Quiros. The 18^th was the first playoff hole and Wood safely found the fairway with his blind tee-shot, while Oosthuizen hooked his drive left, but the South African was fortunate to have a good lie and then produced a superb approach shot to eight feet of the flag.

Wood’s 25-foot birdie putt looked on course for the cup until it just faded away on the last few rolls, narrowly missing the hole, while Quiros was on the fringe and could not chip in for birdie. So it was Oosthuizen who holed out for birdie and his third European Tour title.

Wood is joined at the co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour/European Tour event by fellow highly-rated Englishmen Oliver Wilson and David Howell, but just to add even more spice to the Africa Open, there is a strong contingent of Frenchmen, their arch-enemies from across the Channel, coming to East London.

Julien Quesne has had a tough start to the year, including the black mark of a disqualification from the Dubai Desert Classic at the start of February, but he is a two-time European Tour winner and a regular visitor to South Africa.

Gregory Bourdy is the man many are tipping for success at the Africa Open as he is the third highest-placed competitor in the Race to Dubai, at 22^nd, while Raphael Jacquelin, the father of four children with wife Fanny, is a four-time European Tour winner. He dreamed of playing professional football before having to give that up due to a knee injury when he was 13 and he initially switched to tennis before taking up golf with great success.

In terms of current newsmakers playing at East London Golf Club, none is bigger than Darren Clarke, the former Open champion who has just been named as Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain, while spectators will also get the chance to see one of the future stars of the tour in 21-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero.

Andrew Dodt, fresh off his victory in the Thailand Classic which lifted him to 13^th in the Race to Dubai, and Brett Rumford, who grew up in Perth, a city that shares East London’s reputation for being windy, are coming from Down Under.

Jeev Milkha Singh was the trailblazer for Indian golf and has entered the Africa Open, but Shiv Kapur, one of the rising stars who fell in behind him, is the highest-ranked golfer from the sub-continent in action in East London, at 68^th in the Race to Dubai and 240^th in the world rankings.

Another Asian talent, South Korea’s Jin Jeong, finished tied second in last year’s Joburg Open and the time may have come for the former world number one amateur to claim his second European Tour title.

But it is English golf that is really taking the European Tour by storm this season and, apart from Wood, SA Open champion Andy Sullivan, Wilson and Howell, Robert Dinwiddie had an excellent Africa Open last year, finishing seventh, just two shots off the playoff, and Matthew Nixon had a strong finish over the weekend with rounds of 68 and 67.

Clearly, South African golfers are going to have their work cut out to ensure that the internationals have to wait a little longer for their first Africa Open title.

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Frontrunners Martin Kaymer and Louis Oosthuizen are in agreement that winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge will not be easy at the punishing Gary Player Country Club course on Sunday.

Kaymer and Oosthuizen played themselves into the final two-ball under cloudy skies in Saturday’s third round, but will be bringing slightly different mindsets to Sunday’s closing round.

Oosthuizen, who is on four-under-par and trails Kaymer by a shot, does not believe anyone is going to be able to run away with the tournament on the final day.

“I can’t see someone shooting 65 or 66. The course is playing really difficult and I won’t be surprised if seven-under wins it. You’ve just got to stay very patient and make sure you give yourself a shout with four or five holes to play,” Oosthuizen said.

“You need to hit as many greens as possible. You can’t just go for the pins, that would be silly. The best score in the tournament has been 69 and I cannot see someone shooting much lower than that,” the South African said.

Kaymer is in pole position going into the final round, but he said that does not mean he will lock away all his attacking ambitions.

“It will be a mistake to try and defend my lead. You need to hit fairways and greens and that will lead to a few chances. But if you don’t hit fairways, you’re not going to get any birdies.

“I’ve been very surprised how difficult the course is though, so I won’t be too aggressive. Even level-par is a good score in these conditions,” Kaymer said.

Kaymer displaced NGC defending champion Lee Westwood as the world number one in early 2011, but his form has waned this year, before returning just in time for Europe’s miraculous Ryder Cup victory, in which the German sank the putt that ensured they would retain the famous trophy.

“I played very well before the Ryder Cup and I was ready to go two or three weeks before the tournament. Winning it was a huge thing, the ultimate, because I’ll never be under more pressure.

“I haven’t had a win otherwise in 2012, but it’s still been a very good year because I’ve made progress with my swing. I’m hitting the ball very well and I’m happy with my game. Golf is a game of patience and I still have 20 years ahead of me. Or 30 if I’m like Bernhard,” Kaymer quipped in reference to his countryman Bernhard Langer, who won the Nedbank Champions Challenge for the senior golfers on Saturday.

Louis Oosthuizen once again ate something dodgy at the Sun City beach party but had recovered sufficiently by Saturday to position himself nicely just one stroke behind leader Martin Kaymer after the third round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club.

Kaymer shot a solid two-under-par 70 on Saturday to move to five-under overall, but Oosthuizen closed in on the former world number one with a three-under 69, the joint best round of the day.

Fellow South African Charl Schwartzel is one stroke back after a 70, while two-time defending champion Lee Westwood and rising American star Bill Haas are tied for fourth on two-under-par.

When Oosthuizen made his NGC debut in 2010, he suffered a reaction to eating seafood at the famous beach party at the Valley of the Waves and finished last.

“Two years ago, the whole tournament felt like a blur, I just felt terrible,” Oosthuizen said.

Unbelievably, the South African once again picked up a stomach bug at this year’s beach party and did well to struggle his way to an even-par 72 in the second round.

“Yesterday I wasn’t feeling good at all. Today I still had a bit of cramps and pain in my stomach area, but at least I was able to eat a bit, to get something in me,” Oosthuisen said on Saturday after his round.

The 30-year-old from Mossel Bay produced a skilful display of golf on Saturday, thriving in the tough conditions as sunny skies gave way to cloud and occasional light rain.

“The weather was like on the coast, the wind was all over the place and the ball just didn’t go as far. The rain didn’t do much to make the greens easier either,” Oosthuizen said.

Kaymer, however, is in pole position after recovering from a bogey on the par-four third hole to collect three birdies and not drop another shot.

The German said it had taken him a while to lock down his distance control after a dramatic overnight change in weather.

“It was a bit more difficult than yesterday, especially the first few holes because usually the ball goes a bit further in the heat,” Kaymer said.

“Usually the ball goes 10% further, but it took a while to work out whether it was 10% less today or 5% less. And the wind was swirling around on a few holes too.”

Overnight leader Paul Lawrie’s challenge waned as he struggled to a 75 on Saturday to trail Kaymer by four shots, four bogeys in his first eight holes serving to derail his round.

Schwartzel played some inspired golf, dropping just one shot after a wayward drive on the testing par-four eighth hole as home fans contemplated a first South African triumph in the exhibition event since 2007.

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A South African has not won the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City in five years, but the two firm home favourites, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, both downplayed their chances at the Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday.

Schwartzel is the more familiar with the great course at Sun City and will be making his fourth appearance when the $5-million tournament tees off on Thursday.

But the 28-year-old’s form disappeared after a freak rib muscle tear in June and is only just showing signs of reappearing, leaving Schwartzel unsure of his chances.

Oosthuizen, meanwhile, began the year with victory in the African Open and added the Malaysian Open crown in April, but has failed to win since then, even a run of five successive top-10 finishes in recent weeks not entirely cheering him up.

The 30-year-old has also had to weather the disappointment of two playoff losses this year, including the heartbreak of just missing out on the Masters title won by Bubba Watson at Augusta.

Ranked number seven in the world, Oosthuizen is one of the hottest golfers on the planet right now, but he was surprisingly downbeat about his chances at Sun City.

“It’s been frustrating because I feel I’ve been playing better than my finishes. I guess I’m satisfied with the year overall, but disappointed that I lost twice in playoffs. I just haven’t been putting myself in good positions come Sunday.

“I always say I want three wins a season, I’ve got two, so to win here this weekend would end the year on a high,” Oosthuizen said on Wednesday.

Oosthuizen, whose previous appearance in the NGC was a last-place finish in 2010, expects two-time defending champion Lee Westwood to be his biggest obstacle, particularly since the Englishman can call his driver into service on most holes.

“I forgot how narrow the fairways are and how thick the kikuyu is. The rough is really thick all around the fairways and greens, because of the recent rain, so you have to drive straight or you’re going to struggle. The greens are running pure but the rain has made them a bit slow and you just have to adapt to the speed,” Oosthuizen said after his pro-am round on Wednesday.

“So you have to think that Lee Westwood’s name is going to be right up there. He has an amazing record around this course, he’s a world-class player and one of the best ball-strikers in the game.

“He drives the ball so straight and he has great iron play, so he gives himself so many opportunities for birdies. He’s able to take driver on a lot of holes where the rest of us take three-wood, that’s how confident he is with that club,” Oosthuizen said.

Schwartzel, born and raised in Gauteng, said he was actually not entirely comfortable on the 7162-metre Gary Player Country Club course.

“It’s always a fantastic week here and I’ve always loved the golf course, but it’s not really suited to my game. I’m a fader of the ball and you mostly see holes moving left-to-right here with the fairway slopes. So you need to draw the ball here to do well,” Schwartzel said.

The 2011 Masters champion’s main problem this year has been the changes to his swing caused by the rib injury he suffered at the U.S. Open.

“It was a bit of misfortune when I tore my intercostal – I don’t even know how it happened, I basically sat down and could hardly breathe – and it halted my pretty good form up till then.

“I came back two or three weeks early because I wanted to play in the Open, but I created some bad habits in my swing to play around the injury. That led to a lot of inconsistency and frustration.

“But for the last month-and-a-half, I’ve been pain-free and I’m getting the swing back to where it was. But it’s been a long process coming back from that injury and I’m not expecting anything this week. If I have a good week and play the way I know I can, then I’m easily capable of winning. But it’s too early to say what’s going to happen, even though things are definitely turning,” Schwartzel said.

Justin Rose was, like Schwartzel, born in Johannesburg, but the Englishman is now at home in all the great cities of the world having won four titles in America, five in Europe, two in South Africa and one each in Japan and Australia.

With the minimum of fuss, he has risen to number four in the world rankings – the best in the NGC field – and his recent form includes a brilliant 62, the low round of the tournament, in the final round of last weekend’s World Tour Championship in Dubai, where he finished second to world number one Rory McIlroy.

Westwood, Schwartzel and Oosthuizen will all have maximum respect for Rose and his ability to claim the spoils at Sun City, while they will also no doubt see former world number one Martin Kaymer as a threat.

Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts is likely to be a crowd favourite, with the spectators getting to see just how far he does smite the ball, but he will have to marry consistent accuracy to his tremendous power in order to win the title.

There is a third South African in the field in Garth Mulroy, who qualified by virtue of winning the 2011 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, but it is difficult to see the world number 201 having the game to beat the rest of the field which also includes resurgent 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie.

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