Dan Roebuck’s European Tour preview – Tshwane Open

This week’s inaugural Tshwane Open, staged at the Copperleaf Golf and Country Estate in Centurion, is the sixth and final event to be held in South Africa on the European Tour this season.

Form students will have noticed that four of the previous five tournaments held on South African fairways have gone to locally-born players and this week’s market principles all hail from the Rainbow Nation. Garth Mulroy (14/1), Jaco Van Zyl (14/1) and Thomas Aiken (16/1) vie for favouritism. And of that trio it’s Van Zyl that makes most appeal.

The Pretoria-born golfer won last week’s Dimension Data Pro Am on the Sunshine Tour. The success was fully deserved and came off the back of near misses in both the Joburg and Africa Opens. In those two tournaments he played in the final group on day four only to buckle under pressure. His victory at Fancourt will have given him tremendous confidence and he’s already said how much he is looking forward to this week’s event.

This is the first tour tournament to be staged at Copperleaf, but looking at the expected length of nearly 7,800 yards, it seems obvious that bigger hitters will have some sort of advantage.
Andy Sullivan (25/1) has ranked in the top three of the driving distance stats category in two of his last three starts, including in the Africa Open last time out. The Englishman can also boast three top-dozen finishes in his last four outings.

Lastly, Mark Tullo’s length off the tee will also stand him in good stead at this week’s layout. The Chilean is a multiple winner in South America and has two Challenge Tour wins on his CV. He comes into this week following consecutive top-ten finishes and could run a place at a fancy price of 66/1.

My three to follow – Van Zyl, Sullivan and Tullo.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.