BMW SA Open favourite Branden Grace and 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel will walk the Glendower fairways alongside England’s Chris Wood in the first two rounds.
The star South African duo begin their quest to keep the national championship on home soil at 12:10 off the first tee with a number of eye-catching groups around them.
At 11:50, also off the first, Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard joins Joburg Open runner up Erik Van Rooyen and compatriot Thomas Aiken while rising local star Christo Lamprecht plays with defending champion Graeme Storm and Darren Fichardt, who triumphed on home soil last season at the Joburg Open.
Following the 2017 Nedbank Golf Challenge champion Grace and his party will be another strong English contender in the form of Matthew Southgate who pegs it up with two more local hopes in Richard Sterne and Dean Burmester. The latter is confident of a strong showing this week following on the back of his T4 finish at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Grace and Schwartzel are the top two players in terms of world rankings as well as with the bookies this week and have the comfort of knowing what target has been set with tw0-time European Tour winner Dylan Frittelli, Andy Sullivan and 2016 champion Brandon Stone headlining the morning field.
Sullivan, who edged Schwartzel in a playoff to win in 2015, is hoping to kickstart his year after dropping down to 133 in the world rankings. The Frittelli group are off at 07:00, one group behind Hennie Otto, David Drysdale and George Coetzee.
A large gallery will be out watching the 07:1o group which includes tournament host Ernie Els who will be joined by two former Masters winners in Mike Weir and Trevor Immelman. Following that Major appeal are the trio of last year’s winner in Prague, Haydn Porteous, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and veteran star Retief Goosen.
