Ernie Els is certain that the eight-man South African contingent will have a big advantage playing on home ground in the European Tour’s Volvo Golf Champions event teeing off at Fancourt on Thursday.

The winners-only invitation event has been moved from Bahrain to George due to political unrest in the Middle East, and the South Africans are licking their lips at the prospect of playing for two million euro on a course they all know well, Fancourt being one of the country’s premier tracks.

Els spends his Christmas holiday every year in nearby Herold’s Bay, while Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace both come from the Southern Cape and Retief Goosen spends plenty of time here too. Hennie Otto, Garth Mulroy, Thomas Aiken and Charl Schwartzel also have plenty of experience of playing on the Links.

“Local knowledge will definitely come into play here, especially when the sea-breeze picks up, and it’s definitely an advantage for myself, Retief and Louis because we’re here on vacation every year and we know the course,” Els said at Fancourt on Wednesday.

And if there’s anyone determined to make that home-ground advantage count, it’s Els, who is coming off a poor year and played several rounds at Fancourt during December.

“We’ve been coming down here now for the last 22 years, so it’s home for us as a family. I played all of December here, so I have a good feel for the course. Knowing the course is also a big advantage,” Els said.

The three-time major winner has dropped out of the top 50 on the world rankings – he’s currently 71st – and it was his victory in the 100th staging of the South African Open in December 2010 that earned him his spot in the 35-man field.

The awful prospect of not qualifying for the Masters looms large for the South African legend, and The Big Easy is certainly not happy with the situation.

“You lose your sense of humour when you’re not putting well and I’d like to get that back. If I can get the putter working, then you’ll see me smiling more.

“But my work ethic and determination are more than ever. The last season was dismal and I really want to turn things around and win some tournaments.

“A lot of people are reminding me that, at the moment, I’m not in the Masters. I know where I stand in the rankings, I don’t need reminding. But I’ve got a couple of months to rectify it – you don’t want to be asking for an invitation to Augusta, so I’ll just have to qualify!” Els said.

South African Branden Grace played with admirable calm to win his first European Tour title when he won the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club by one stroke with a final round of level-par 72.
Grace, playing his 50th European Tour event, finished on 17-under-par, one stroke ahead of Briton Jamie Elson, who catapulted himself into second place with an outstanding nine-under-par 63.
The 23-year-old Grace began the final round with a three-stroke lead over compatriot George Coetzee and Briton Richard Finch. They were all playing in the final three-ball after weather delays on the first three days of the 1.3 million euro co-sanctioned event.
But Finch crashed to a six-over-par 78, three-putting three times on the front nine, to end nine shots off the pace.
Coetzee closed to within two shots of the lead with birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes, but the burly South African faded on the back nine after a double-bogey on the par-four 13th when he hooked his approach shot into the water. The world number 80 finished with a 75 to close on 11-under-par in a tie for 14th.
Grace, a former member of the Ernie Els Foundation, put together nine straight pars on the back nine to hold off Elson and six golfers who finished in a tie for third on 14-under – Scots David Drysdale and Marc Warren, and South Africans Jaco van Zyl, Trevor Fisher junior, Dawie van der Walt and Michiel Bothma, his cousin.
The pressure of leading seemed to affect Grace at the start of the final round as he bogeyed the par-three second hole. But a wonderful approach shot to within eight feet on the 389-metre par-four ninth hole set up a birdie that seemed to settle the former South African amateur strokeplay champion.
“I played superbly today, my approach shots were amazing. I stuck to my game-plan and kept hitting good shot after good shot. I couldn’t dream of better approach shots than what I played on the last five holes,” Grace told reporters after his triumph, which earned him 206 050 euro.
Grace’s back nine was the epitome of solid golf under pressure as he made no mistakes off the tee and was superb with his irons. The margin of victory would have been greater if Grace had not narrowly missed a number of birdie putts.
“The opportunities were there, but I told myself first of all not to mess up and then to just keep giving myself chances. I struggled to get the lines exactly right, the greens were immaculate, but if you were a little bit off, you ended four feet away.
“Obviously it’s awesome to win, it’s been coming a long time and it’s really nice to have the first win back home. The hard work has paid off and my consistency has paid off,” Grace, who earlier this week won the Gary Player Trophy for best stroke average on the Sunshine Tour, said.

England’s Robert Rock is feeling more and more comfortable in South Africa and also with his recent positions at the top of leaderboards around the world.

All of which makes his current position atop the Joburg Open leaderboard – on 11-under-par after a second-round 67 – all the more ominous for the rest of the field in the co-sanctioned European Tour/Sunshine Tour event.

Rock had to complete his last three holes of his weather-interrupted first round from 6.45am and promptly birdied 17 and 18 to complete a marvellous 65 on the tougher East Course. After a short break and some breakfast, the 34-year-old began his second round and almost immediately went into the lead with an eagle on the par-five second hole. Three birdies in a row from the 13th then sealed his position at the top, one shot ahead of South Africans Branden Grace and Jbe’ Kruger.

Rock has been coming to South Africa for the co-sanctioned events for the last eight years and has been steadily improving his results.

“When you start to play the same tournaments at the same venues, you can start planning your shots into the greens because you’re familiar with the putts, you start to remember the lines, and it’s a big help.

“They’re always good courses when you play tournaments in South Africa and that’s what interests me, I prefer that to massive prizefunds,” Rock said.

The Belfry-based golfer has also won more than 2.3 million euro in the last three years, winning the Italian Open last year and then finishing eighth in the lucrative, season-ending Dubai World Championship.

“I played some of my best golf in Dubai to finish eighth in a great field and my game started to turn around last year, especially my iron play. I also started putting well – I can be a bit hit-and-miss with the putting.

“So I hoped I would start this year where I left off last year and it was similar. When I saw I was leading, it did not bother me too much, whereas normally I would be thinking ‘what do I do now?’ But I led basically all the way through in Italy and it feels better to be in that position now,” Rock said.

After a 4.30am wake-up call on Friday, Rock at least knows he’ll be going off at a far more civilised hour when he starts his third round.

“I don’t like those 4.30 alarms, the aim is to play your way out of those. But I guess weather delays are part of the scene this time of the year over here …

“I played really well in the Pro-Am, so I was hopeful. I then had a great round on the harder course to shoot seven-under, but I didn’t play as well today, but managed to get a score.

“My whole game is good – I drove every fairway, bar one; I hit most if not all of the greens and I hit some irons to tap-in length. It’s been a stress-free couple of rounds, what more could I wish for?” Rock said.

Now that he knows how, Rock could go all the way and claim his second European Tour title in seven months.