Five of South Africa’s most promising amateur talents have been added to the star-studded SA Open field at the Gary Player Country Club from 3-6 December.

The South African Golf Association (Saga) on Tuesday announced the amateur quintet exempt from qualifying in the R19.5-million tournament, supported by Nedbank and Sun International and co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour and European Tour.

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‘As the custodians of the SA Open, we are extremely proud and honoured to offer our top talents this marvellous opportunity to test themselves in a championship of this stature,’ said Saga acting president Martin Saaiman.

‘We are delighted to announce that our reigning SA Amateur champion and No 1, Casey Jarvis, will spearhead the group. He will be joined by fellow GolfRSA National Squad members Kyle de Beer, Yurav Premlall, Sam Simpson and Christo Lamprecht.

‘The 110th playing of the SA Open Championship was announced on Thursday, 22 October and the Saga selection committee made its final selection the following day.

‘Casey automatically qualified as the 2020 SA Amateur champion and we selected the next four players off the GolfRSA Open Amateur rankings,’ Saaiman said.

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‘Since all our national tournaments were cancelled at the end of March due to the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, we had no choice but to base our selection on the rankings as it stood at the end of March when our tournaments were shut down. Martin Vorster, who is second in the rankings, had advised us that he would be unavailable for selection because he is still recovering from a wrist injury, so the next four spots went to Kyle, Yurav, Sam and Christo, respectively ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

‘We wish these five amateurs well as they test themselves against a strong international field at the iconic Gary Player Country Club.’