Speed treat for young golf superstars
The popular Tshwane Open golf tournament tees off on Thursday and the country’s top golfers, including three local Pretoria players, are getting ready to show the capital city how it is done
Stephané Bothma
Several local and international golf stars have arrived in Pretoria to participate in the premier Tshwane Open golf Tournament that starts at the Pretoria Country Club on Thursday.
But, the newfound superstardom of South African golf’s “Young Big 4” was nowhere more evident than when Brandon Stone, Haydn Porteous, Zander Lombard and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were treated to an advanced driving experience around Zwartkop race circuit as a promotional stunt ahead of this week’s Tshwane Open.
The new young faces of the local game are indeed in the spotlight and will remain so when the final European Tour co-sanctioned event in South Africa this summer tees off at Pretoria Country Club on Thursday.
It does so with former Masters champion, Pretorian Charl Schwartzel and defending champion, also from the capital, George Coetzee in the field.
But it’s the achievements of Stone and Porteous in winning European Tour events in January, and Lombard and Bezuidenhout finishing second in those, that had captured the attention of their contemporaries.
Pretoria’s Dylan Frittelli was one of those, and the 25-year-old was seeking to make his own breakthrough in front of home crowds this week.
Frittelli came close to a European Tour victory when he lost the Australian PGA Championship in a playoff late last year. That performance, combined with a top 20 in the South African Open last month, had given the confidence to feel he can challenge for the title this week.
“It’s given me the world of confidence for this year. What Branden and Haydn did definitely set the stage for us younger players, and I guess I’m due now having been on tour for three years already.
“I know this golf course pretty well and I’ll want to use this to my advantage. I’m feeling good about my game. I’ve been working hard with my trainer. My body is in tip-top shape and I’m swinging it well. I just need to get the mental side taken care of and then we can get that win,” Fritelli said.
He already had two practice rounds at Pretoria Country Club in Waterkloof last week and said the only real change he expected for the tournament was in the speed of the greens.
“The greens were pretty slow then and I think they’ll speed up a bit now. Hopefully we don’t get any more rain otherwise the rough will be super long. But it’s in good shape and I think it will be a fair test.”
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