Sunshine Big Easy Tour Launched

The Sunshine Tour announced the launch of the Sunshine Big Easy Tour presented by Stonehage, a mini-tour dedicated to giving a wider cross section of professionals to play in competitive professional events.

“Stonehage is absolutely delighted to be sponsoring the Sunshine Big easy Tour,” said Stonehage chief executive officer Giuseppe Ciucci. “Stonehage has supported the development of golf through Ernie and his Foundation for over 10 years. We are proud to be involved with the Big Easy Tour at its inception stage and to have the opportunity to contribute further to the development of the game in South Africa. We hope this commitment will allow Stonehage to continue to assist with the discovery and development of real golfing talent under tournament conditions within South Africa, now and in years to come.”

The Big Easy Tour presented by Stonehage gets underway at Crown Mines Golf Club on March 24, and it will be the first of 10 events which will be followed by a Tour Championship at a venue to be announced at a later date.

Sunshine Tour commissioner Gareth Tindall said, “As the Sunshine Tour continues to grow, we need to make sure we give more opportunities to develop skills in the professional game to a wider range of players, especially those who perhaps haven’t had many opportunities to excel in amateur golf ranks. The Big Easy Tour presented by Stonehage provides exactly that.”

The Tour is named after three-time Major winner Ernie Els in recognition of his continued commitment to the development of the game in South Africa. “I commend the Sunshine Tour on this initiative to provide competitive playing opportunities for our up-and-coming professionals and I am very honoured that the Tour has asked me to put my name to the new mini Tour,” said Els from his US home in Florida. “The Big Easy Tour will help our young nation’s talent mature, develop their playing skills and take the next big step towards full Tour status. It’s a great format and I’m sure it will prove popular. Also, I am very excited that Stonehage, a company with which I have had a long association, has decided to sponsor the Big Easy Tour. They are a loyal partner of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation and this extension of their involvement in South African golf is wonderful to see.”

Professional golfers who received their cards at the Sunshine Tour 2011 Qualifying School played in Bloemfontein last year, and the top 30 at the Vusi Ngubeni Strokeplay played in Johannesburg in January are eligible to play on the Tour, as are those who finished from 71st to 150th on the 2010 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.

Each tournament will be played over two rounds, and, to begin with, all events will be in the Gauteng area, where the majority of golfers at whom the series is aimed live. That way, travel and accommodation costs will be alleviated for those players.

Each event will have R100,000 in prize money, with the Big Easy Tour Championship having a purse of R250,000.

Coetzee Wins Telkom PGA Championship

George Coetzee had to keep his eye on his watch after being put on the clock on Sunday as he marched to a two-shot victory in the R3.25-million Telkom PGA Championship played on the Woodmead course at Country Club Johannesburg.

He finished on 27-under-par 261, and fired a final round of eight-under-par 64 to edge out Neil Schietekat by two shots, with the man with whom he tussled all week long for the victory, Branden Grace, slipping to a share of third with a fast-finishing Garth Mulroy two shots further back.

And it wasn’t until the trio got put on the clock at the 14th that the challenge presented by Grace faded.

“It was unfortunate, that,” said Coetzee. “Gracie was very aware of it, and he was rushing his shots. I knew it would make a difference, and I tried to make sure it didn’t make a difference to me. I tried to tell myself that I am a quick player and not to worry about it.”

But Grace pushed his drive on 14 right into the trees, and, in an incredibly lucky break, it ricocheted off a truck forward to the left side of the fairway.

He was unable to convert his good fortune into a birdie, and his game fell to pieces on the next two holes: He made consecutive bogeys, while Coetzee, who had birdied 14, was safely down in par on both.

The stocky 24-year-old from Pretoria then put his foot on the pedal and birdied the final two holes to underline the form he had showed all week.

There have been times recently when Coetzee has doubted his ability to win, but he worked hard at dealing with that: “I kept tell myself that I may hit some bad shots and I would recover from them.”

And recover he did: he dropped just four shots throughout the tournament, the last of which came on the second hole of his final round. After that, he made nine birdies in a ding-dong battle with Schietekat and Grace.

“I don’t think there are a lot of people who have hit more balls than me over the last two years,” said Coetzee, who last won on the Sunshine Tour in 2008, “but I am very glad it’s finally paid off, because while you’re battling, the question is always whether you’ll get out of the rut.”

The other important part of getting out of the rut was doing the right thing under pressure.

“I tend to try and fire at flags all day long,” he said, “and Johann Rupert told me at last week’s tournament to be a little less aggressive when things got tough, and I did that a lot,” he said.

But it took some similar advice from his father, Dr George Coetzee, who was on the bag this week, to fire him up and ram home the advantage as Grace faltered: “He told me to just get it close from 15 feet on 17, and I was anxious because that could have left me with just a one-shot lead going to 18,” he said.

“So I concentrated really hard on trying to make it, and I did,” he added.

The 18th become something of a victory lap for him, and he added his name to a trophy which has names likeGary Player, Ernie Els, Nick Price and Louis Oosthuizen engraved on it.

“During the week, I kept telling myself that i don’t care whose names are on that trophy, to me it’s just about winning the trophy,” he said.

“Now, I see there are a lot of great names on it and I would love to follow in their footsteps and do great things,” he added.

Telkom PGA Result

Coetzee and Grace Share Telkom Lead

Branden Grace

George Coetzee took a healthy dose of patience from his doctor father in the second round of the Telkom PGA Championship to card an eight-under-par 64 for a share of the halfway lead.

With him at 15-under-par was playing partner Branden Grace, who also signed for a 64.

“My father is on the bag this week,” Coetzee laughed, “and maybe we’ll finish a second tournament together this weekend.”

What the paternal presence of Dr George Coetzee did bring to the George Coetzee junior game was the ability to wait out the dry patches.

After a birdie-less opening six holes in the first round, he reached the sixth hole in round two at level par again. “I just had to be patient again on the first six holes today, and then I started making some putts,” he said.

He certainly did: Two before the turn, which he reached in a respectable 34, and then another six on his way home as he closed in 30.

“Gracie was four shots ahead after eight so I was just chasing him the whole day,” he said. “Having someone to chase with a reasonable score – well, maybe not reasonable – but maybe someone to chase who inspires you play better really helps.”

It helped Grace too: “I was just hanging on in that back nine,” he said, “trying to make another birdie or two while he was going crazy.”

Grace turned in five-under 31 after three birdies and an eagle, and he finished with three more birdies on the back nine to finish his second consecutive bogey-free round.

“I want to try and go the whole tournament without making a bogey,” he said, and who would bet against it as he and Coetzee egg each other on in the final two rounds.

They weren’t the only players to take advantage of the low rough and benign conditions at Country Club Johannesburg: Divan van den Heever and Vaughn Groenewald each made nine-under-par 63s.

Groenewald’s was a flawless effort, which closed with five consecutive birdies, while Van den Heever had an eagle and a bogey mixed in with his eight birdies.

Van den Heever finished the day on 12-under for the tournament in fourth place, and Groenewald moved into a share of eighth with Chris Swanepoel and Garth Mulroy.

In third ahead of Van den Heever was Hennie Otto, who also got in on the low-scoring act with his eight-under 64, leaving him one shot adrift of Grace and Coetzee – but brimming with confidence after his win last week in the Dimension Data Pro-Am.

He will need to find an antidote to the medicine Coetzee is taking. “My Dad’s trying to push me to do better. He’s always saying that I can get another birdie when I make one,” said Coetzee.

Telkom PGA Leaderborad

Five Share Telkom PGA Lead

Anton Haig

Anotn Haig turned back the clock to the days when he was one of South Africa’s hottest young golfers with a seven-under-par 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead of the Telkom PGA Championship.

The 24-year-old who won his first Sunshine Tour event at the age of 19 in 2005, and subsequently went on to win the 2007 Johnnie Walker Classic on the European Tour at 21, turned in an unexceptional three-under-par 33 after starting his round on the 10th hole of the Woodmead course at Country Club Johannesburg.

“I felt great from the very beginning,” he said. “I haven’t been having a great time lately. But I hit my first shot perfectly and then striped it all day after that.”

But for a bogey on the 17th, he could have had the outright lead instead of sharing it with Darryn Lloyd, Branden Grace, Oliver Bekker and George Coetzee.

And there was the bit of absent-mindedness which cost him a penalty stroke on the fifth when he lifted his ball from the fairway. “We’ve had so much rain this year,” he laughed, “that I just did it without thinking. I had the ball in my hand, and then I saw my tee on the ground to mark it – so I had to call a penalty stroke on myself.”

He still managed a par four on the 434-metre hole.

“I haven’t had so much fun for a long time,” said Haig. “It’s easy to say I’ll do the same in the second round, but that’s what I’m going to try and do, even though I’m leading now.”

Haig will take a voluntary leave of absence from the Sunshine Tour for four months after this tournament after a disciplinary hearing following poor behaviour at the Dimension Data Pro-Am.

“I’d like to apologise to Dimension Data chairman Jeremy Ord, Dimension Data and my playing partners,” said a contrite Haig.

But he brightened as he thought about enjoying the game in which he had such a promising start as a professional.

He shared the lead with a quartet of young players who dominated the round: Lloyd is 21, Bekker is 26, Grace is 22 and Coetzee 24.

Grace, Bekker and Coetzee all recorded bogey-free rounds, in contrast to Haig and Lloyd.

“I left a few putts out there,” said Grace, “but I have been hitting it well since my first win at the Coca-Cola Championship last year. I feel as if I could win any week now.”

Bekker has now recorded three successive bogey-free rounds, and he says it’s because he’s more careful off the tee recently. “I hit a lot more three-woods, and take it easy with my drive, and I hit 12 fairways today,” he said.

Coetzee said his round almost didn’t feel like a good one. “I started with six straight pars, and then the putts started going in. I’ve been hitting it so well lately that a lot of the time I didn’t even notice that I was making birdies,” he said.

Defending champion Michiel Bothma had a slow start with a one-over 73; last week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am winner Hennie Otto opened with a 66, while European Tour stars Thomas Aiken and James Kingston each carded a two-under 72.

Telkom PGA Leaderboard

Aiken Looking for Win at Telkom PGA

Thomas Aiken

Any victory would do. But in the mind of Thomas Aiken, a win in this week's Telkom PGA Championship would be particularly significant.

Aiken heads to Country Club Johannesburg hoping to turn a solid run of form into what would be the biggest victory of his career in South Africa's second oldest professional tournament.

And it's the pedigree of the Telkom PGA Championship that will resonate so strongly with Aiken, who is passionate about the history of the game and South Africa's place therein.

There is no doubt that he is due a big win soon. Aiken has finished in the top 15 in six of the seven tournaments he's played this year, the highlights of which were third in the Joburg Open, sixth in the Qatar Masters and seventh in the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour.

His remarkable consistency has lifted him into seventh place on the European Tour's Race to Dubai rankings, as well as a career high of 90th on the world rankings.

Aiken has come close to winning the Telkom PGA Championship before, finishing second in 2006 and fourth in 2009. Last year he was 12th behind champion Michiel Bothma.

Aiken has long been considered one of the young stars of South African golf, and is well aware of the pressure on him to start winning the big events in the same fashion as his peers such as Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

But Aiken has always been somewhat of a late bloomer. When he turned professional in 2002 following a glittering amateur career in which he was named Amateur of the Year in 2001, Aiken immediately left these shores for the tough school of the European Challenge Tour.

It was a steep learning curve and one he didn't adjust to easily. So he returned home in 2004 to play the Sunshine Tour. That year he broke through with three victories, setting a record by winning three of the six tournaments on the Vodacom Origins of Golf series. It's a record that has only ever been equalled but never broken.

The following year Aiken won twice on the Sunshine Tour and won the winter series' Order of Merit.

In 2007 he again tried his hand on an overseas tour and competed on the Nationwide Tour in America, but without success.

But in 2008 he qualified for the European Tour, and came close to a maiden victory a year later when he led the Alfred Dunhill Championship going into the final round - thanks to a brilliant third round of 61 - only to finish fourth.

In 2009, Aiken crystallised his potential with a finish of tied eighth in the Open Championship at Turnberry and then tied seventh in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship against world-class fields. And several other top tens that year proved, in his own mind at least, his ability to contend at the highest level of the game.

And if he does take his place in South African golf history this week, the blank cap where he hopes a sponsor will see value in one of the most consistent performers in the local game will surely become history itself.

Hennie Otto Wins Dimension Data

Hennie Otto 

Hennie Otto secured the first victory by a European Tour member outwith The European Tour in 2011 when he triumphed in the Dimension Data Pro-Am on the Sunshine Tour.

The 34 year old South African carded a final round 68 on the Montagu Course at Fancourt for a 16 under par total of 273 and a four shot victory over another European Tour member and compatriot James Kingston, who also closed with a 68 for 277.

In many ways, Otto’s approach shot to the 18th on Sunday typified the golf he played throughout the week – depositing a wedge just a foot from the flag for a tap-in birdie to complete a dominating performance.

“I was hitting those kinds of shots well all week and my putting also started coming right after I went back to my old putter,” said Otto who claimed his tenth title on the Sunshine Tour, and his first since his 28-under-par tour-de-force at last February’s Vodacom Championship.

“It was a bit of a quiet patch after that but I have been working hard all the time and I’m starting to reap the fruit of that.”

Overnight leader George Coetzee stayed right in contention with battling golf through 12 holes – he made one bogey and a birdie – until a bogey on the 13th took the fight out of his game, and the deflation was compounded with another bogey on the 16th.

Coetzee eventually finished alone in third place after his 74, with Kingston matching Otto’s four under par 68 to take his second runner-up finish in two weeks after his second place finish in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last week.

As well as a first prize of 475,500 rand, Otto also gained an exemption into the $8.5-million World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in August.

“It means a lot for players like me who are on The European Tour because it counts for The Race to Dubai and therefore quite important. I have been there four or five times before, and I’m looking forward to going over again this year. I hope I can have a good one this year.”

Leading final scores (all players from RSA):

273 - Hennie Otto 68 71 66 68 

277 - James Kingston 67 72 70 68 

278 - George Coetzee 70 65 69 74 

280 - Branden Grace 73 67 69 71, Warren Abery 69 71 70 70