Grace is the bookies favourite

Three of South Africa’s major champions, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel head the field for this week’s South African Open at Glendower Golf Club.

Els, a two-time winner of both the US and British Opens, will be seeking his 6th SA Open title as he chases Gary Player’s astonishing record of 13, and fellow veteran Goosen, a two-time US Open winner, will be looking for his third SA Open when he tees off on Thursday.

But former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel could be the most driven player of the trio as he hungrily chases his first national Open.
Perhaps the man to keep a closest eye on, though, is still-to-be-crowned Branden Grace.

He has yet to win a major or the SA Open, but in the past two years Grace has won more titles than any other South African and it’s not for nothing that the bookmakers have established him as their favourite to win at Glendower Golf Club’s beautiful, but dangerous parkland course in Johannesburg this weekend.

At between 7 and 8 to 1 he tops the list of bookies favourites on oddschecker.com, just a slender point or so ahead of second favourite Schwartzel at between 8 and 9 to one.
Els is third favourite at 16/1 with European Tour regulars George Coetzee (18/1) and the 2011 SA Open winner and 2013 runner-up Hennie Otto (20/1) just behind him.

Defending champion, Morten Arum Madsen of Denmark is at No 14 at 40/1, but in the light of the fact that his current World Ranking is 204, this is not altogether surprising.

With just the one season and only 28 European Tour events under his belt, Madsen’s win last year created quite a stir, the rookie coming from out of the blue to become just the third Continental European to lift the coveted, second-oldest Open championship in world golf.

With a good many of the European Tours big guns such as Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood not yet ready to cut short their festive season breaks, the SA Open offers the “Young Turks” of the Tour a good opportunity to make an early mark in an event that has been co-sanctioned by both The European and the Sunshine Tours since 1997.

During this time 12 home players have triumphed. But an overseas winner is not out of the question.
And with so much exciting young talent finding its way into professional golf these days, it’s not an impossibility that one of the eight Challenge Tour graduates which include the likes of Sam Hutsby, Jordi Garcia Pinto and Jason Palmer, as well as local man Jake Roos might just come up trumps, though I wouldn’t bet on it!

The Weather?

Golf Weather’s experts are expecting possible thunder storms with a 60% chance of rain on Thursday and a 30% chance on Friday afternoon, so the early starters on Thursday could have a distinct advantage.

Very little rain is forecast for Saturday and none for Sunday and with the wind never amounting to anything, the six dozen or so who make the cut should have an easier time at the weekend when you can expect to see the likes of Grace, Els, Schwartzel, Otto. Goosen or perhaps other former SA Open champions like James Kingston (2007) and Richard Sterne (2008), fighting it out with European contenders like England’s David Horsey and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin. Madsen might even be able to get back into the picture again.

For any feedback or ideas you are welcome to email: neville@golfweather.com