European Tour: South African Open Power Rankings
By Matt Coles
The European Tour returns this week for the first tournament of the new decade, with the South African Open hosted by the City of Johannesburg kicking off the 2020s.
It is the national championship in South Africa, and the flagship event of the Sunshine Tour, with the winner earning a minimum of 32 points on the Official World Golf Rankings. The South African Open is also one of the oldest national championships in the sport of golf, with the first edition taking place back in 1903, when Scotsman Laurie Waters took the victory, before going on to retain the title twelve months later.
18 men have won this event on multiple occasions, with the majority of those coming from the African continent. The three others all hail from the British Isles, but only five of those multiple-time victors have taken a win this century.
Gary Players holds the record, having won this event an incredible 13 times over a 25-year spell, including a run of five on the bounce between 1965-1969. Bobby Locke (9), Sid Brews (8), George Fotheringham (5) and Ernie Els (5) have also tasted success on several occasions at this event.
Els is one of those few to have won the event since the turn of the millennium, having taken victories in 2006 and 2010 to go along with his three wins prior to 2000.
Marc McNulty followed his 1987 win up with a second in 2001, while both Trevor Immelman (2003-2004), Tim Clark (2002, 2005 Jan) and Retief Goosen (2005 Dec) all kept the South African dominance going in the early 2000s.
In recent times, only two South Africans have tasted success at their national championship since 2012, with the likes of Henrik Stenson, Andy Sullivan and Chris Paisley all getting in on the act.
However, Louis Oosthuizen is the reigning champion, having cruised to victory in December 2018, the last running of this event, before its move back to January for the 2019-2020 European Tour season, where it becomes the first tournament of the calendar year, and in this case, the decade.
For the second consecutive edition, and the third time since the event became co-sanctioned by the European Tour in 1997, Randpark GC will play host to the event, with the Firethorn Course being the enemy for the players this week.
The courses redesigned and rebuilt in 2015 by Sean Quinn, with seven new holes constructed, and a number of bunkers being modified to cause even more trouble, with the majority of those also having distinctive flash fronted faces.
This event comes as the fourth of the new European Tour season, with Pablo Larrazabal, Rasmus Højgaard, and Adam Scott having won the first three events, the former having taken a victory on South African soil at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Just one of those features this week in Johannesburg and they make our Power Rankings for the South African Open, but else makes the top ten ahead of the first event of 2020?