Malaysian No 1 Gavin Green will commence his 2020 European Tour campaign in this week’s South African Open hosted by the City of Johannesburg, which starts on Thursday at the Randpark Golf Club.
The South African Open is once again part of the Open Qualifying Series, rewarding the leading three players in the top 10, who are not already exempt, places in the 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s this July.
Home star Louis Oosthuizen will attempt to defend the title he won in December 2018, which kick-started a strong 2019 campaign where he collected a pair of top fives in World Golf Championships events plus four additional top fives to move back into the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
Oosthuizen is only the fourth South African to win both The Open and South African Open, joining Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els. In his most recent strokeplay start at the Emirates Australian Open, the Mossel Bay native finished as runner-up before earning 2.5 points for the International side which narrowly lost to the United States at the Presidents Cup.
Nicholas Fung
Meanwhile on the Asian Tour, Malaysians Nicholas Fung and Ben Leong commence their 2020 campaigns in this week’s Hong Kong Open which was postponed from 2019. The US$1 million tournament boasts a star-studded field including reigning Open champion Shane Lowry of Northern Ireland, American Tony Finau and 2019 Asian Tour No 1 Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand.
“I have played here twice, in 2009 and 2010 and it’s good to be back in Hong Kong. It’s my first tournament of the year and hopefully I can go out and shoot some good scores,” said Lowry.
Ben Leong
