Michiel Bothma and his fellow Sunshine Tour professionals have faced a tough test from Annika Sorenstam’s Euphoria Golf Estate course during this week’s Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament. The Swedish legend is one of the few female golf course designers in the game. Photo: Petri Oeschger / Sunshine Tour.
The Sunshine Tour will make history on National Women’s Day, due to this week being the first time that the local men’s professional circuit has held a tournament on a golf course designed by a woman.
The Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament has been played at the Euphoria Golf Estate in the Waterberg region north of Pretoria this week, and finishes on National Women’s Day. The course was designed by legendary Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam.
Generally the country’s professional golfers are more used to playing golf courses designed by the likes of Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Ernie Els. But the severity of Sorenstam’s 7 040-metre layout has certainly caught a few of the men’s professionals by surprise.
“It’s a lot tougher than you’d expect from a woman designer,” said Desvonde Botes. “It’s actually quite a long, hard golf course.”
Ulrich van den Berg agreed that Sorenstam’s layout was more than a test for them this week. “She’s created a course here where you need to play really good golf to score well. It’s a trying course. It’s definitely been beating a couple of the boys up this week.”
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