European Tour - Africa Open

This is a truly African week for the European Tour, with both the Challenge Tour and the main tour events being staged over there, in Kenya and South Africa, respectively.

Africa Open is hosted by the East London GC and has a very short history, with the previous three events being won by the two local 'kings' and very good friends, Oosthuizen (2) and Schwartzel (1). Not a big event at the best of times, there is obviously going to be even less interest in it this year due mainly to its proximity to next week's Match Play event in Arizona for which a record number of top Saffers have qualified this time around. As a result, the top ranked player in the field will be FA Hed from Sweden at #97, so it's going to be a great oportunity for a lot of relatively new, aspiring guys out there to make an impact this week, i.e. guys like Fleetwood, Gagli, Kieffer and especially R. Santos who has been in excellent form over the last 2-3 months. He finished top 30 in all th etournaments since the Hong Kong Open in mid November and was in the top 10 in 3 of the last 4 events. Last week, if you exclude the top form players like Sterne and Schwartzel, he could've/would've won the event in Johannesburg. Then you are always likely to find a few players who have been struggling for a while with their form and are looking at low key events like this as a good oportunity to regain some confidence by playing against a weaker field, or indeed, simply because they're not in a position to get access into the biger events... and in that category we have guys like Luiten, Rock, Aiken and even young Tom Lewis, who seems to be on an ascending path once again over the last few weeks... But then, it's South Africa, and as we've seen last week, there is a good chance that we may see once again at the top of the leaderboard a whole bunch of very capable locals, from their 2nd echelon, very much pumped and inspired by the great successes of their top co-nationals...

Somewhat surprised to see that some people who have been in good form recently and who could still have a decent chance to qualify for Doral via the top 10 R2D, such as Webster and Aguilar, are not playing this week. One more reason for Santos to have a good go this week and use this nice run of very good form to move to the next level (i.e. top 100, WGC Cadillac, etc...).

It's a shame that, by definition, this has to be a second- or third-tier event, what with finishing in East London on Sunday and the MatchPlay starting in Arizona on Wednesday morning.
Certainly haven't flown everywhere, but always felt the jet-lag from SA to USA (and vice-versa) was brutal, the worst I've experienced.
Would be good to see some of the better players contest the finish though, those you mention, pd, in sore need of a boost to their career.

Cheers kwini. Jet lag seems to be indeed a concern for the Saffers going to US. Heard king Charl answering a queastion the other day in LA saying that the only opponent he fears this week at Riviera will be the jet lag...

Not a happy St. Valentine's Day down in South Africa and I don't think they'll be paying too much attention to the golf there by the looks of things...

Solid start from one of the local favorites, J. Van Zyl, but I'm begining to have some doubts that Robert Rock's form will improve any time soon, hope I'm wrong though... Decent start for Luiten...

Not a happy Valentines Day for Oscar Pretorius' girlfriend.

The thing is he must have had to get up, put his legs on and go find a gun, all of which you would imagine would take a while.

At this point she still hasn't called out to say hi , and presumably not bothered to put any lights on, or he hasn't noticed it is his girlfriend. He then see's the silhouette of a hot blond and shoots her in the face.

McLaren wrote:The thing is he must have had to get up, put his legs on and go find a gun, all of which you would imagine would take a while.

At this point she still hasn't called out to say hi , and presumably not bothered to put any lights on, or he hasn't noticed it is his girlfriend. He then see's the silhouette of a hot blond and shoots her in the face.

Just had a joke in.

Apparently he was legless when he shot her.

When she asked for a mind blowing experience of valentines day......

Sad. She probably just wanted to pull a leg. Instead he'll now be known as Pistolius.

Solid day for Luiten except for the last three holes as he managed a bogey, triple bogey and bogey finish. Wonder whether that has got anything to do with play being suspended. Seems to be a little unfair for the players out when that happened in case the players will continue in calmer conditions later today or tomorrow. Anyone any suggestion how to prevent that from happening? Restart?

pedro wrote:Sad. She probably just wanted to pull a leg. Instead he'll now be known as Pistolius.

Apparently it's a cut-and-dried case, he hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Roses are red
Violets are glorious
Don't try and surprise
Oscar Pistorius

According to an old interview Pistolius is a marksman and sleeps with a small arsenal next to his bed. Not the type you'd want to surprise at 4 a.m. Other reports suggest past domestic violence in the house, so maybe the story has more to it.

BC

Sure someone with more time on their hands than me will muse some new lyrics for Uprising.

Is John Parry going to be a top golfer? Early win, doldrums, off the Tour and now looking competitive again.

More misery for Dougherty and Storm will need another 62 to reach the weekend!

Parry is a definite top level possible -sullivan steady again-rock disapointing.Had an interesting conversation yesterday with a pro who played the BMW last year.Essentially one bad shot cost -didnt make the cut ,
Different level but gave me an insight ,

Not quite sure what happened to Parry after his rapid rise during his rookie year in 2010 when he got that first win on tour and came pretty close to the top 100 in the rankings... was it an injury, or just a slump?

Amazing round of 62 by Da Silva, the 41-year-old veteran from Brazil. Just looked up at his carreer and he only had 2 top 10 finishes in over 17 years on the ET, but then he had 10 wins on the Sunshine Tour so there's no real surprise if you look at it from that angle...

Leading by a whooping 5 shots at the moment from Van Zyl and Ignacio Garrido of Spain, who's having a pretty hot start together with R. Santos today...

Whatever happened to Kenny Ferrie?

"She will not control us
We will be Pistorius"

I personally prefer the to be confirned anecdote that Oscar was calling himself the Pistorius B.I.G. lately, so could have seen that one cummings

I see Albert Pistorius is in the field for the next African tournament, in a fortnight's time.
I'm so sorry, Uncle Albert,
I'm so sorry if I ever caused you pain,
But there's no-one left at home,
And I believe I'm gonna rain.
Love, Oscar

Luiten starting well today, -3 after 5. Interesting to see if he can go really low today

Kenneth Ferrie I think he went for lunch a couple of times with Mr Lowry
(ha matchstick men)and that was that.Just goes to show the fine margin in this game.Dougherty,Archer,Campbell spring to mind

More good work by Messrs Parry, Sullivan and Fleetwood.
A "Made Cut" for McGowan, but not so good for Tom Lewis, Maybin or Rock.

154th and propping up the field must be humiliating for Dougherty.

And an eagle at the 15th hole saved one of the favorites, Aiken, from an embarassing early exit.

Great to see another almost out of nowhere top 10 performance (as the top 10 he scored at Wentworth last year) from the Cork/Waterville veteran David Higgins...

Sullivan managed to chuck a triple into his round,Kwini the three you mention have a common thing all very good amateur careers.
Early night game on tomorrow

Not a bad field in Kenya for the Challenge Tour event - but desperately sad to see Rhys Davies missing the cut.
Will he be the next version of Nick Dougherty?

And Ricardo Santos not doing enough in East London to harbour serious hopes of playing in the Cadillac.

Not a great week for me on the Fantasy Team here. Just decided to drop this time Fichardt and Bourdy after they didn't do anything spectacular for me last week...

Once again the South Americans doing very well in South Africa...

princedracula wrote:...Just decided to drop this time Fichardt and Bourdy after they didn't do anything spectacular for me last week...

Fichardt doing all he can to lose this at the end, but Van Zyl just not 'helping' him enough...

Just watching this an hour or two behind. There is a flag on 6th which looks to about about 2 fairy steps from right edge and one giant step from back edge. Not sure I've seen one positioned like it, ever!