Tshwane Open 2018 - Pretoria CC, South Africa

We head back to South Africa this week for the third time this season for the Tshwane Open which is to be played for the fourth successive year at Pretoria CC. The initial two hostings of the event were held at Copperleaf CC in Gauteng. As with most co-sanctioned events in South Africa, the home players tend to rise and fill the leaderboards, and this has been very much the case here at The Tshwane Open where only Ross Fisher (2014) has broken the home sequence of winners. Inaugural Pretoria winner, George Coetzee heads the market this week, he grew up playing on this old course which was opened way back in 1910 and redesigned by Gary Player in 2004. The home favourite however, missed the cut twelve months ago and was 14th when defending. He arrives this week in decent form and rightly tees off as the jolly. Whilst South Africans have tended to outperform their European peers in these co-sanctioned events, I'm not so sure that the trend will continue in future years as the quality of the young players coming through should negate against the home advantage at some point. I say this as there are more and more top quality players coming here now trying to get some Race to Dubai points under their belts and the competition on tour is getting better and better. Once familiar with the kikuyu grass, these events will become more competitive with less emphasis on the home players. From this weeks shortlist, I've looked at just 5 home players, and I've ignored Erik Van Rooyen, based on price, as well as Haydn Porteous, Shaun Norris and Jacques Blauuw.

Of the home players, I'm turning to old stalwart, Richard Sterne @ 32.00 Having returned from all those injuries over the years, perhaps there is some great days yet ahead for the 36 year old and  returning to play in his home town this week sees a glorious opportunity to make some ground in the R2D. He's well experienced, and is making cuts consistently(5/5 this season) and the hope here is that he is simmering nicely ahead of this week. An afternoon tee time on Thursday playing alongside Danny Willett and Scott Jamieson is ideal, and he can keep an eye on the market leaders Coetzee and Van Rooyen who will be playing in the threeball ahead of him. He's a quality player and he represents value in the outright market for me having made him 25.00 this week.

Benjamin Hebert should be suited to Pretoria CC where accuracy is key. The Frenchman was 20/25 in 2017, with 4 TOP-10s and 8 TOP-20s. He's continued that form in 2018 with 4/5 including a TOP-10 in Oman a couple of weeks ago. Notable results for the 31 yr old last year came at Portstewart (T-9th),the Alfred Dunhill at Leopard Creek (4th), Trophee Hassan (19th), Nordea Masters (8th) , Made in Denmark (6th) as well as the Nedbank Challenge (19th). He finished down the field last week but his 9-17 finishes in Oman & Malaysia suggests his game is in decent nick and he can't be left out @ 60.00 and 6.50 for a TOP-10.

Darren Fichardt is another local who is quite capable of making a run here this week @ 70.00 and 9.50 for a TOP-10. He does however arrive here on the back of three successive missed cuts but a return to the homeland could put an end to that run, especially as it's here where he too played a lot of a golf as a junior. Having won the Joburg the week prior to this event in 2017, Fichardt was perhaps over confident of a bold showing twelve months ago,but its clear from his interview at the time that he likes Pretoria CC when saying "You know, once you get to a tee and you pull out a club, you are not standing looking at the yardage,” he added. “It’s something you have played so many times. You stop standing thinking and you get to the 11th tee box and you know ‘three-wood, right edge bunker’, then you get there and you know exactly what you are going to do for the next shot. It’s just like a formality, whereas if you have not played here much, then you need to really think a lot around course and what you want to do. But I have got a pretty good game plan. I have been playing here for the last 15 years. I will just stick to that game plan and see what happens.” Let's hope the game plan materializes this week !

For regular readers, I won't bang on about Gavin  Moynihan's chances having missed the cut in Qatar(perhaps flying out from Dublin just hours before tee time took its toll) but he is here and prepared better as he goes in search of making his first cut this season. His game will suit Pretoria, and hopefully he has taken plenty of notes of how to plot his way round(based on the observation of Darren Fichardt above) so the 12.00 on offer is taken as its just a matter of time before Gavin starts finding his way on this tour and making not only regular cheques but T-10s! He's not unfamiliar with South African courses having played a few last year on the Sunshine Tour. I'm backing him to grab a T-20 here, I like the afternoon tee time alongside Bernd Ritthammer and Keenan Davidse.

Staking Plan 

1.50 pts R.Sterne @ 32.00

0.75 pts B.Hebert @ 60.00

0.75 pts D.Fichardt @ 70.00

2.00 pts TOP10 B. Hebert @ 6.60

3.00 pts TOP10 D. Fichardt @ 9.50

2.00 pts TOP20 G. Moynihan @ 12.00