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The Joburg Open returned to Randpark Golf Club last year and has also hosted the South African Open in 1995, 2000, 2019 and 2020. The course that was established in the mid-60s has undergone some major changes since then.
In 2015 Sean Quinn, constructed seven new holes on the Firethorn course and rebuilt every green and several bunkers were modified and given distinctive flash fronted faces.
The cameras will mainly focus on the 18th, which was changed from a long par five to a very tough 507-yard par four. The front nine plays like a totally different course, the par 3 2nd has been removed and replaced with a par five which doglegs right to the old 3rd green. The 6th, 7th and 8th holes were also replaced by four new holes that run counter-clockwise to the old routing.
The Firethorn course at Randpark is renowned for its tough finish, starting at the 470-yard, par four, 16th hole, where a dam needs to be avoided on the left of the fairway. The 235-yard par 3 17th has water to the left and sand to the right with the crescendo being the new 507-yard, par four, that doglegs left across a stream to a well-guarded, elevated green.
The Joburg Open will have the largest field of the season, with 240 players competing over Randparks two courses – Firethorn and Bushwillow and it's the first time this event has not been played at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club.
No surprise that the bookies have installed Dean Burmester 8/1 with WilliamHill as the favourite this week. The lad from Harare is in great form at the moment with two Top 10 finishes from his last three starts, one of them being his sixth place finish at the weekends World Tour Championship which see him finish inside the Top 20 on the European Tours order of merit. In the four tournaments that he has played over the Randpark course Dean has finished inside the Top 20 twice and missed two cuts.
A runner-up finish in this event last year should see Wilco Nienaber 25/1 with WilliamHill walking through the gates of Randpark with a lot of positive memories. It has been an up and down season for Wilco on the European Tour but he did have a sixth-place finish last month at the Open de Espaρa firing a final round 64 that see him move up the leaderboard sixteen-places , he also had a win earlier in the year at a cosanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour at the Dimension Data Pro-Am
A past champion of this event is George Coetzee 28/1 with WilliamHill who won back in 2014 when the tournament was played at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC. Up until last year George had only won on the African continent, but his win by two shots at the Portugal Masters last year now shows he has the game to win anywhere and I feel he will be right in the thick of it come Sunday.
Each-way tips:
Two Top 10 finishes here from his three starts shows Brandon Stone 33/1 with WilliamHill can challenge around the Randpark course. Brandon won earlier this year on The Sunshine tour at the Limpopo Championship which was also a cosanctioned event with the European Challenge Tour. Brandon has won three times on the European Tour and started this year with a runner-up at the Dubai Desert Classic and had a Top 10 at the Qatar Masters before winning in South Africa, but those were the highlights of his year, but being back on home-soil I am sure he will be looking forward to this week.
After gaining his European Tour card earlier in the year this is the start of Santiago Tarrio 66/1 with UniBet first full season on the main tour and he will be looking to get off to a good start. There have been glimpses of the man who won twice in three starts and had a third place sandwich between those wins and then went on to have three more Top 5s from his next four starts and I think he will be a player to watch this season.
Outside tips:
Currently sitting in third place on the Sunshine Tours Order of Merit is Oliver Bekker 90/1 with 10Bet who has only been outside the Top 15 twice from his eight starts and has four Top 5 finishes including a runner-up at the Limpopo Championship which is cosanctioned event with the European Challenge Tour and will be looking to challenge again this week.
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