Five SA golfers to tee it up at PGA Championship

Five South Africans, including 22-year-old Ryan van Velzen, will tee it up at next week’s second Major golf tournament of the year, the PGA Championship, at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.

Joining Van Velzen, who has qualified to play in his first Major by winning the 2023/24 Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit, will be Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Dean Burmester, Thriston Lawrence and Erik van Rooyen.

LIV stars

Louis Oosthuizen, who like Burmester plays on the LIV Golf Tour, was given a special invitation to play the PGA Championship, but turned it down due to “personal reasons”.

In total, 16 LIV Tour players will tee it up next week, among them Burmester, who was also handed an invite after capturing his first LIV title earlier this season. He won the Miami event in early April when he banked around R75 million for the victory.

Other LIV stars in the field include last year’s PGA champion, Brooks Koepka, who will be a hunting a sixth Major title, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm.

The full field will include 156 of the best players in the game, with the last two spots to be filled this weekend, by the winners of the PGA Tour events at the Wells Fargo Championship and Myrtle Beach Classic.

Rise of Van Velzen

Van Velzen, who hails from Benoni, will be the most foreign player to SA and world golfing fans playing at Valhalla. But he has earned his place in the elite field after a stellar season.

He hit the headlines when he challenged for the SA Open title at Blair Athol in 2023, eventually finishing second and then he went on to claim a third Sunshine Tour victory in 10 months earlier this year.

In 27 tournaments in the 2023/24 season Van Velzen missed five cuts and made 11 top-10 finishes.

By winning the Order of Merit he will also tee it up at the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon in July.

The 2024 PGA Championship tees off next Thursday and runs to Sunday.

FULL FIELD AT PGA CHAMPIONSHIP