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SA golf legend Ernie Els will be amongst several world golfing champions who could be coming to Durban in January for the Volvo Golf Champions.
The Volvo Golf Champions, one of the biggest events in the game, will return to SA next year – further confirmation that professional golf is booming in this country.
The tournament, which will be held at the Durban Country Club from January 10-13, is restricted to European Tour members who have won an event on the previous year’s tour – in this case, this year’s – with the only exceptions being current tour members with more than 10 European Tour victories.
World No 1 and PGA champion Rory McIlory, British Open champion Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Justin Rose all fall into the 2012 winners’ category, as do Els’s fellow South Africans Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Hennie Otto, Garth Mulroy, Darren Fichardt and Jbe Kruger.
And Retief Goosen makes the grade as a 10-time champion on the European Tour.
Grace won last year’s Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt, after a sudden-death play-off with Els and Goosen, and has confirmed that he will defend his title.
The tournament, which is to be played over 72 holes, with no cut, will be held in partnership with the KZN provincial government, the national Department of Sport and Recreation, and the Department of Tourism. Last year the prize money was E2 million (about R21m), with the 2013 purse – the most valuable on the continent outside of the Nedbank Challenge – due to be announced in late October.
The event at The Links at Fancourt last year was a huge success, but at that stage talk was of moving it around the world.
That it is returning to SA is a massive feather in the cap for professional golf in this country.
And the Volvo comes on top of the six events co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour to be held in SA this summer.
These are the SA Open, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, the Africa Open, the Joburg Open and the inaugural Nelson Mandela Championship and Tshwane Open.
George O’Grady, the chief executive of The European Tour, said: “We are delighted the event is taking place in Durban and that as our longest-serving partners, Volvo, will be continuing with their 78th European Tour event, a special relationship driven by passion and vision.”
Fikile Mbalula, the Minister for Sport and Recreation, said: “This is fantastic news for South African golf.”
Durban Country Club has hosted 17 SA Opens and should be a fitting venue for a tournament of the calibre of the Volvo Golf Champions.
* And in another boost for KZN golf the world finals of the Amateur World Golfers Championship returns to the province next month.
Cotswold Downs, Durban Country Club, Prince’s Grant and Umhlali Country Club are the nominated courses for the finals from October 27-November 3.
More than 200 amateur golfers from around the world, including a 10-strong SA team, will converge on KZN for the world finals, which are now in their 18th year.
SA team John Strydom (Gauteng); Andrew Morgan (KZN); Jan Oosthuizen (Gauteng); Ricardo Camaro (Western Cape); Babs Narsiah (KZN); Zaahir Abrahams (Western Cape); Farhan Sayed (KZN); Andries Claassens (Free State); Mario de Melo (Gauteng); Kalvin Parsons (KZN)
