Ken Borland

The excellent build-up for the new SA20 tournament continued this week with the news that Sky Sports in the UK have signed a five-year deal to also show the tournament, expanding the global reach of the new T20 league and also bringing in some much-needed hard currency.

With the tournament kicking off in Cape Town next Tuesday evening in Cape Town, everything would seem to be in place for the SA20 to explode into the consciousness of cricket fans.

While co-owners SuperSport will obviously have the African broadcast rights for the league, the all-important Indian market was sown up by the 10-year deal signed with Viacom 18, the dynamic new entertainment network that is growing rapidly on the subcontinent. They are believed to be paying at least $240 000 per game, so this year’s 33 matches will bring in nearly $8 million (R135 million).

Contracts are also being finalised to ensure the tournament is broadcast in other major cricket markets like Australia/New Zealand and the Caribbean.

There is a title sponsor in BetWay, who have signed a “multi-year” deal, and CSA are intimating that the league will make a profit in its first year, having earlier predicted a five-year wait before the SA20 would be in the black.

One does still wonder, however, about a few finer details.

Is a run of five successive fixtures between February 3-7 on the Highveld – with matches at both the Wanderers and SuperSport Park on February 4 – going to enjoy good crowds? The semi-finals follow from February 8 and there is a good chance either the Joburg Super Kings or Pretoria Capitals will be involved in those too.

And is the tournament loadshedding-proof and, if so, are those emergency back-up measures not going to significantly decrease profits?

But here’s hoping for some magnificent action to take our minds off all the troubles currently surrounding South African cricket, never mind the country as a whole.

Having looked into my crystal ball, I would, if forced to, put money on a MI Cape Town versus Paarl Royals final.

MI Cape Town, in particular, have a marvellous attack – Jofra Archer, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada and Rashid Khan could bowl 16 of their 20 overs, which leaves opposition batsmen with plenty of thinking to do when it comes to taking them on.

Englishman Dan Bradbury on Sunday exhibited all the airs of disbelief one would expect of a golfer who comes into a co-sanctioned tournament like the Joburg Open on a sponsor’s invite without any tour status, and ends up winning.

Bradbury clinched the Joburg Open title by three strokes at Houghton Golf Club on Sunday, shooting four-under 67 in the final round to finish 21-under-par overall.

Having been at the top of the leaderboard from the first day, when he shot a 63, there seldom seemed any doubt on Sunday that the 23-year-old Bradbury would win as he produced a superb round of controlled golf. Whenever he made a mistake, Bradbury quickly rectified it and his only dropped shot came when he three-putted the final hole, but he already had a three-shot lead.

The U.S. College golf system may not receive much attention in South Africa, but it clearly produces golfers of great temperament. With all the massive prizes on offer, including a guaranteed spot on tour four months after turning pro, Bradbury did not blink when the pressure was on.

“It’s amazing, I can’t tell you how it feels because it still hasn’t sunk in and I’m sure it won’t for a while,” Bradbury said half-an-hour after his triumph. “I just went out there today to enjoy it.

“I played a lot of good golf and I was able to draw on my experience of College golf, I tried to win a lot there and I learnt from my mistakes. I just tried to play solid golf today and not do anything different.

“I just tried to not compound errors because on these greens bogey is never too far away and I just tried to keep the doubles away. My swing and irons were good all week and we picked good lines and hit good shots.

“It is life-changing because I’ve gone from not knowing where I will be playing to now being able to play everything, which I will do because I love playing. This is a silly game because I have been hurting may times after final rounds,” a beaming Bradbury said.

Finland’s Sami Valimaki shot a two-under-par 69 on Sunday to finish second on 18-under-par, while South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout (66) and Daniel van Tonder (68) were tied in third place on 17-under. Both played well off the tee and the fairways, but just could not make the crucial birdie putts coming down the back nine.

Bezuidenhout, who had a run of birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie from the third hole, Van Tonder and Valimaki all put Bradbury under early pressure, but the Yorkshireman chipped in for a crucial par on the sixth, when double-bogey looked possible, and also made vital par-saves on the 14^th and 15^th holes.

And now Bradbury has a lot of new plans to put in place. Starting with some shopping because he will be playing in the SA Open at Blair Atholl next week, instead of flying home as planned, and only brought one set of golf attire with him.

Tommy Fleetwood was well-served by his short game as he clinched a thrilling 40^th Nedbank Golf Challenge on the final hole on Sunday, the seventh time the tournament has been won by the defending champion.

Fleetwood came from three shots behind in the final round, shooting a superb five-under-par 67 on Sunday to finish on 11-under-par. The Englishman won the previous Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2019 with a score of 12-under-par 276, and so joined Seve Ballesteros (1983/84), David Frost (1989/90), Nick Price (1997/98), Ernie Els (1999/2000), Jim Furyk (2005/06) and Lee Westwood (2010/11) as back-to-back winners.

A brilliant 50-foot putt to within inches of the 18^th hole earned Fleetwood his par, and victory, with Ryan Fox unable to get up-and-down from short of the bunker in front of the green, his bogey leaving him on 10-under-par.

Shubhankar Sharma bogeyed the 16^th and 17^th holes to finish on nine-under.

Fleetwood started hot with three birdies in his first six holes, his 20-foot putt on the sixth bringing him just one stroke off the lead as overnight leaders Rasmus Hojgaard (76) and Thomas Detry (77) were overcome by the pressure and the ruthless nature of the Gary Player Country Club when mistakes are made.

Play was brought to a halt though by lightning when Fleetwood, Fox and Shubhankar were on the eighth hole, but Fleetwood, the highest-ranked golfer in the field at No.25, was not fazed by the near three-and-a-half hour delay.

Fleetwood birdied the par-five ninth hole, as did Fox and Shubhankar. The New Zealander and the Indian were now the co-leaders, but Fox, who had started his round with six straight pars, then reeled off four birdies in a row, joining them on 10-under with his four at the par-five 10^th hole.

Fleetwood let good chances for birdie slip by on the 10^th and 11^th holes, and then narrowly failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker on the 12^th.

He found himself in the sand again on the 14^th, but chipped in for eagle to go to 11-under-par, catching up with Shubhankar and Fox, who made birdies.

But the 31-year-old was inspired by the shot and would not relinquish his position. His short game came to the fore on the last two holes as a brilliant chip from off the green on the 17^th left him with a tap-in for par, and then came his wonderfully-judged long putt on the final hole.

Shubhankar, the 2017 Joburg Open champion, short-sided himself in the bunker on the par-three 16^th and missed his eight-foot putt for par, and then found the fairway bunker on 17. He laid up and produced an excellent third shot but then missed his four-foot putt for par, to ruin his chances of a second title on South African soil.

Fox’s tenacity all through the tournament was remarkable, overcoming his wonky Driver with a brilliant short game. But his crucial chip shot on 18 was initially disturbed by a moronic heckler in the crowd, and he then ran the ball on to the fringe of the green and could not make the putt.

Fleetwood has not won since his 2019 triumph at Sun City, and his emotions flowed on the 18^th green as the tears came.

Leaders Ryan Fox and Luke Donald were only able to complete three holes on the second day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Friday as thundershowers and persistent rain washed out play, leaving tournament organisers under pressure to finish the second and third rounds on Saturday.

Overnight leader Fox birdied the par-five second hole, but then immediately gave the stroke back with a bogey-five on the third to sit at eight-under-par when play was suspended at 11.49am due to lightning. Steady rain had already been falling for some time and it never relented, leading to the course being waterlogged.

Donald had joined Fox on eight-under as he birdied the second hole and parred the first and third holes.

“We would need two hours of no rain just to start to get the course reasonably playable,” tournament director David Williams told media after play was called off for the day at 3.30pm.

“If we could have got a couple more hours in today then that would have been great, but we felt it was better to make a decision. We will start again at 7.45am on Saturday and the third round will be played in the same groups.

“The golfers will get a half-an-hour break after the second round and then go again. That way we can save two hours, maybe more, with the forecast not being marvellous for Saturday either.

“Sunday morning is also not so good, so we need to get as much completed on Saturday as we can. Hopefully we get the third round done, but there’s a lot in the air at the moment,” Williams said.

Perhaps the golfer most frustrated by the delay was Englishman Ross Fisher, who had a great round going and had climbed into a tie for third place on six-under-par with Rasmus Hojgaard and Guido Migliozzi.

Fisher birdied the first two holes and then the ninth, and had just eagled the par-five 10^th when the golfers were pulled off the course. Being five-under through 10 holes has lifted the five-time DP World Tour winner to just two strokes off the lead.

Hojgaard was also going well on three-under through six holes.

Veteran Richard Sterne is the leading South African, birdieing the first two holes to go to three-under.