OPINION: SA golfers dominating on DP World Tour bodes well for greater success

We can only hope that these successes translate into bigger victories, perhaps even in the Major championships. It has been quite the season for South African golfers on the DP World Tour (European Tour). If you didn’t know, there have been eight victories so far over the course of the season, from six different men. It is a quite astonishing feat. In mid-December last year, at the start of the new season, Jayden Schaper won back-to-back at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Mauritius Open. Then, in late February, Casey Jarvis went back-to-back by winning the Kenya Open and the prestigious South African Open. He nearly made it three wins in a row, but fell short at the Joburg Open, just missing out to Dan Bradbury of England. In early May, Yurav Premlall won the Catalunya Championship in Barcelona and later that month veteran Richard Sterne won the Soudal Open in Belgium. In July it was the turn of Michael Hollick to take home a DP World Tour title, after winning the BMW International Open in Munich, and just last week Thriston Lawrence, who has become one of this country’s hottest golfing prospects, won the European Masters in Switzerland, for a third time. With eight events left on the calendar this season there’s every chance a South African could pick up another win. It bodes well for the future of South African golf, though this country’s wait for a next Major champion continues. The last time a South African won a Major was back in 2012, when Ernie Els triumphed at the Open. Perhaps one of these men, or the many other quality golfers from our country, will step up and be the next Major winner. It would also be nice to see some of these players, and a few others, challenging more regularly on the PGA Tour. There have, of course, also been some wins by South Africans on the LIV Golf tour, namely by Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Dean Burmester, but the future of that tour is up in the air, following the withdrawal of backing by the cash-rich Saudis. Local golf fans will be holding thumbs for an encouraging showing by South Africa’s consistently good performer Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who has been included in the Internationals team for the Presidents Cup match against the USA next week, at the Medinah Country Club in Illinois.