South Africa will host the final two European Tour events of the year with the first of those taking place this week. The South African Open hosted by the city of Johannesburg returns to the Randpark Golf Club for the first time since 2000 with 240 players competing for the ultimate prize. Due to the large field, Randpark’s two championship courses – Bushwillow and Firethorn – will be used the first two days to whittle the field down to the 75 weekend players. The homeland will be well represented since it is their national event and it wouldn’t be a shock to see one of Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace George Coetzee or Brandon Stone at the podium on Sunday.
South African Open Matchup Odds at BookMaker.eu
David Drysdale -115 vs. Jacques Kruyswijk -115
George Coetzee -140 vs. Thomas Aiken +110
Marc Warren -115 vs. Louis De Jager -115
Richard Sterne -140 vs. Scott Vincent +110
Darren Fichardt -115 vs. Matthieu Pavon -115
Scott Jamieson -115 vs. Clement Sordet -115
David Lipsky -105 vs. Paul Peterson -125
Masahiro Kawamura -130 vs. Christiaan Bezuidenhout +100
Trevor Immelman -120 vs. Jaco van Zyl -110
Adilson Da Silva -115 vs. Ernie Els -115
Alejandro Canizares +105 vs. Joachim B Hansen -135
Erik Van Rooyen -155 vs. Chris Paisley +124
Haydn Porteous -115 vs. Tapio Pulkkanen -115
Jeunghun Wang -110 vs. Brandon Stone -120
Romain Langasque -105 vs. Kurt Kitayama -125
Dylan Frittelli -165 vs. Charl Schwartzel +131
Bernd Wiesberger +105 vs. Pablo Larrazabal -135
Louis Oosthuizen -190 vs. Matt Wallace +150
Justin Harding -135 vs. Chris Paisley +105
Shaun Norris -135 vs. Sean Crocker +105
Branden Grace -115 vs. Matt Wallace -115
Charl Schwartzel -120 vs. Dean Burmester -110
Dylan Frittelli -165 vs. Dean Burmester +131
Erik Van Rooyen -145 vs. Justin Harding +115
Louis Oosthuizen -190 vs. Branden Grace +150
Need to Know
Due to the size of the field, the Randpark Golf Club will use both its championship courses. The field will play one round each on Bushwillow and Firethorn to reach the cutdown. The final 36 holes will be played exclusively on the 7,595-yard, par-72 Firethorn layout. It is the more difficult of the two, but given the elevation and straightforward design, it is a scoreable. Bushwillow is much shorter and the easier of the two courses so players will look to make up strokes when playing the 18. The course is just over 7,100 yards and tight in spots, but yields to plenty of birdies. Firethorn allows for big hitters with its length and also has several scoreable par 5s. The final three holes are demanding and could make for an interesting finish.
South African Open Matchup Picks
Bernd Wiesberger +105 vs. Pablo Larrazabal
It took seven months for Wiesberger to tee it up competitively after a serious wrist injury put him on the shelf, and it was too much to ask for him to contend at last week’s Mauritius Open, and sure enough he missed the cut after rounds of 72 and 76. The good news is that he’s back and he wouldn’t go two weeks in a row if he couldn’t handle it. He may need more time to get in the competitive groove, but there’s no denying the Austrian can swing it. He’s a four-time winner on the European Tour and reached No. 23 in the world rankings before the injury. He has some familiarity to this area with a second place finish at the 2011 SA Open and a T19 at the Nedbank Challenge during his last visit in 2017.
Matt Wallace -115 vs. Branden Grace
Two of the favorites going head-to-head in a matchup should be exciting to watch. And both are on a great run of form so we should see them over the weekend. Grace has been here before making his 11th SA Open start in his native country and his best effort recently was a T11 at the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City. Wallace won three European Tour events and nearly had a fourth, settling instead for a runner-up finish at the DP World Tour Championship. His last visit to South Africa resulted in a T5 at last month’s Nedbank Challenge and he had a nice run on this track last year at the Joburg Open sitting in 12th after three rounds before faltering on the last day. Wallace is playing as well as anyone in the field right now.
Justin Harding -135 vs. Chris Paisley
Paisley is the defending champ, but that win came at Glendower back in January and he’ll be playing here for the first time. Harding is a native and his ascent up the world rankings is hard to ignore. He was outside the top 700 when he missed the cut here last time, but a four-win season, including two on the South African Sunshine Tour, and a fourth-place finish at last week’s Mauritius Open where he was co-leader after 54 holes, sends him into this week ranked No. 81.
Golf Betting Odds
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