adminTakudzwa Chitsiga : Sports Reporter
SIX local professional golf players will be part of a big field that will participate in this year’s edition of the Sun City Challenge Trophy at the Gary Player Country Club from tomorrow. The duo of Mark Williams and Ryan Cairns coming from a good outing after they made the cut at the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Wild Coast Sun Country Club in Durban South Africa this past week will once again be expected to lift the country’s flag high.Williams and Cairns will be joined by Kayyam Rauf Mandhu, Mahomed Rauf Mandhu, Brian Gondo, Greg Bentley and Steven Ferreira.
Williams who is having a great season could, however, be overshadowed by Zimbabwean born player Dean Burmester who has two second places on the Sunshine Tour in 2016 to his credit.
Burmester is expected to do well at this week’s Sun City Challenge, and the Nyanga-born player who has a Zimbabwe Open title to his credit last won the Sun City Challenge back in 2014.
The victory was, his second in his Sunshine Tour career, which has six victories but this time, it won’t be at the Lost City Golf Club but the rather the Garry Player Country Club.
The tough Gary Player Country Club will demand the best of him, and of all the other players who will tee off in the 129 members field. This will be one of the biggest contingents of locals this season after the Zimbabwe open as most locals have been struggling to make the cut in the pre-qualifiers.
Burmester won four times on the Sunshine Tour last year, and his second places came in the Dimension Data Pro-Am behind George Coetzee, and in the Eye of Africa PGA Championship behind Jaco van Zyl.
His four wins last year gave him an insurmountable lead in the Chase to the Investec Cup, and he finished third in that tournament back in March.
Prior to that, he had some starts on the European Tour and the Challenge Tour, with his best on The European Tour a share of 14th in the Trophee Hasan II in Morocco, and on the Challenge Tour, he managed a share of 25th in the Fred Olsen Challenge de Espana.
But it was a tough time for Burmester in Europe, and he is sure to be looking forward to being back on home soil — especially in winter when his length off-the-tee is made even more imposing with the hard fairways and the high altitude.
He will have to deal with some savvy competitors, however. Among them is Trevor Fisher Jnr, who has achieved four top-20 finishes on The European Tour, and seems to be heading towards keeping his card for the 2017 season.
Fisher has more experience than Burmester on the Gary Player Country Club track, and that could make him particularly difficult to fight off if he gets into contention.
Online Reporter