– This Thursday marks the start of a new season of the HotelPlanner Tour. Once again, it kicks off with the SDC Open, a tournament that begins a four-week tour in South Africa. The venue is the Zebula Golf Estate in Limpopo, a course where animals roam freely, some as impressive as giraffes or elephants, and others as unpleasant as venomous snakes. In fact, there is a warning on the course about the danger of encountering some of these reptiles.
– A total of nine Spaniards start the season from tomorrow. They are Santi Tarrio, Albert Boneta, Asier Aguirre, Lucas Vacarisas, Víctor Pastor, Javier Barcos, Adri Arnaus, Joel Moscatel, and Pablo Ereño. Ereño, Aguirre, and Barcos are in the tournament thanks to an invitation. Zebula in Limpopo has never been particularly generous to Spanish golf. In fact, the best result is a ninth place by Lucas Vacarisas last year. Beyond that, only one more top 10 to boast about: Manu Elvira, tenth in 2023.
– This is the fifth edition of the SDC Open and the winners have been Sordet, Senekal, Van Tonder, and Enoch. In this tournament, the South African dominance is not so overwhelming. In this event, they are generous enough to share the victories: 50% stays at home, the other 50% goes abroad. We’ll see which way the balance tips this week.
– The main goal for everyone playing this week, and those who will join in the following weeks, is to secure a DP World Tour card through the Road to Mallorca ranking. Let’s remember that this year the spots have been reduced from 20 to 15. However, history tells us that Zebula should not cloud anyone’s mind…
– It’s important to start well, no doubt, and if it can be with a victory, even better. However, there are very clear examples of the opposite in recent years. In 2023, Kristoffer Reitan finished the tournament among the last ten after missing the cut spectacularly. Today he is a PGA Tour player. The same happened with Jayden Schaper in 2022. He withdrew from the tournament once it started and is now the leader of the Race to Dubai. Mikael Lindberg also missed the cut in 2024, who led the Desert Classic last week…
– In short, anyone would sign up for what Van Tonder did last year, winning the first two tournaments of the year, but there’s no need to go crazy if the year starts off on the wrong foot. There’s a long way to go.
– By the way, every year the winning score has been lower than -20 except for last year, which dropped to -16. Initially, it’s all about making birdies, although it will also depend on the conditions and the weather.
