Order of Merit champ tees up for first MENA Tour start

Sport360 staff 07:35 07/06/2016
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  • Bright future: The two-time South African Amateur champion Thriston Lawrence.

    The three-day tournament, to be played at the Zwartkop Golf Club in Centurion, starts today and is

    co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Big Easy Tour. Leading players from both the tours will compete for a share of the 500,000 rand (Dh124,000) prize fund in addition to earning world ranking points.

    Lawrence, the 19-year-old South African prodigy, became the youngest to win the MENA Golf Tour’s Order of Merit title in 2015 and has already racked up two top-5 finishes in the three events he has played this season.

    The teenager announced his arrival on the big stage by winning the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in November last year in a field that featured European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, who is also the MENA Golf Tour patron.

    The two-time South African Amateur champion has been on a roll ever since and will be joined by five other MENA Golf Tour champions, including England’s Lee Corfield, a four-time winner, and an in-form Antonio Costa of Chile, who won the MahaSamutr Masters by six shots at Banyan Golf Club in Hua Hin, Thailand, in May.

    Other MENA Golf Tour notables in the 120-player field include Scotland’s Paul Doherty and the English duo of Scott Campbell and Luke Joy. They will be up against a strong Big Easy Tour contingent that will be looking to make inroads into new territory.

    Spearheading the home challenge will be Jason Viljoen, who currently leads the Big Easy Tour Order of Merit after his second-place finish in the recent Big Easy Tour Observatory event.

    Thanda Mavundla, Hennie du Plessis, Jeff Inglis and Mark Murless, who featured among the top-five at the Observatory, are also in the field, which includes six amateurs, including five South Africans, and Benjamin David of England.

    The Zwartkop Golf Club, founded in 1933, has hosted many significant professional events over the years, including the SA Open, the Sunshine Tour’s ICL International and a memorable exhibition game between Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player during the 1960s.

    Some of the greatest names in golf have walked the fairways, including Sam Snead, Peter Thompson,
    Bobby Locke, Player, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Nick Price and Retief Goosen.

    An initiative of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Golf Tour was created in 2011 with the aim of developing golf in the region. It is affiliated to the R&A, the worldwide golf governing body based in the home of golf, St Andrews, and the Arab Golf Federation, and enjoys the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status.

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