After wrapping up a three week swing through the Middle East with the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last week, the best on the European Tour will make their way to South Africa for the fourth edition of the Tshwane Open beginning on Thursday.
Event Details
Event: 2016 Tshwane Open
Category: European Tour
Date: February 11-14
Location: Pretoria Country Club, Waterkloof, South Africa
This will mark only the second time this tournament has been held at the Pretoria Country Club in Waterkloof, South Africa. The event was held at the Ernie Els-designed Copperleaf course in Centurion for the first two years before the tournament moved to this course designed by Bob Grimsdel a year ago.
Past Three Winners
2015 – George Coetzee -14
2014 – Ross Fisher -20
2013 – Dawie van der Walt -21
What To Know About The Course
The Pretoria Golf Club opened all the way back in 1910, but it underwent a major redesign in 2004. Tight and lined with trees, the course has several ponds on the front nine and a river that runs through holes 13 through 17 on the back nine. The fairways are average in width, but tight at certain spots while the greens are somewhat smaller with elevated Bentgress. Accuracy will be far more important than power this weekend, as the rough can be very tricky to navigate for those that veer to far from the fairway.
The Field
Charl Schwartzel is listed as the betting favorite to win this event outright at +600 odds. Schwartzel is the only player in this week’s field that has previously won a major (2011 Masters Tournament). Last year’s winner, George Coetzee, is right behind him at with odds of +700. Coetzee is the only player in the field to have won this event before, which is partially why his odds are so good. The other main factor here is that the Tswane Open is hosted on his home course, so that familiarity – and having the home crowd cheer him on – could come into play. In total, there will be 22 players that have previously won an event on the European Tour including three from this year (Schwartzel, Brandon Stone and Haydn Porteous).
Schwartzel missed the South Africa Open because he was sick and the fact that this will be his first event in over two months will be enough to scare some betting enthusiasts away from taking a chance on him. How comfortable are you really going to be betting him as a favorite in this spot when he could have plenty of rust from his long layoff?
Trevor Fisher Jr., Jacob van Zyl and Richard Sterne round out the list of favorites although there is a dramatic difference in betting odds with the latter three players listed at +1800, +1800 and +2500 respectively.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Jaco van Zyl over Richard Sterne
Sterne has been given the benefit of the doubt in a relatively weak field, but he will be in tough to produce a better score than van Zyl, who should do better than he has here in past events. His numbers at this event aren’t exactly outstanding, but van Zyl has the perfect game to excel at this course and his experience here could help him finally break through and carry over his success on the Sunshine Tour.
Top-Five Prediction: George Coetzee
The defending champion at this event knows this course better than any other golfer in the field and it really wouldn’t surprise anybody if he doubled up with another outright win this weekend. Coetzee is in fine form heading in to this tournament and there won’t be any pressure on him to get the job done this year after he secured the victory at this tournament in 2015. He was born in Pretoria, which is where the event is hosted, so he’ll have an edge in familiarity. Coetzee is the best bet to win among the big names in a relatively weak field and he should be a lock to at least finish in the top-five this weekend.
Top 10 Odds To Win Tshwane Open
Charl Schwartzel +605
George Coetzee +705
Trevor Fisher Jnr +1650
Jaco Van Zyl +1650
Richard Sterne +2250
Dean Burmester +2550
Brett Rumford +2550
Haydn Porteous +2550
Justin Walters +2850
Brandon Stone +2550
