The SA Open has become the country’s most prestigious tournament, thanks to Ernie Els’ work and Rory McIlroy’s endorsement, writes GARY LEMKE.

In monetary terms, the South African Open, hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni, remains small fry when stacked up against other events on the European Tour.

With prize money of ‘only’ R15-million, which equates to a million euros and a few coins, it is not even the richest tournament in Johannesburg, let alone the country.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge, staged in November at Sun City, now slots seamlessly into the European Tour schedule, with prize money of $7.5-million.

Next richest is the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club (R18.5-million), the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek (equivalent of R17.2-million), the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC (R16.5-million) and then the South African Open at Glendower Golf Club.

However, such was the magic around the 2017 event, in which Graeme Storm beat the tournament favourite Rory McIlroy in a sudden-death playoff that lasted three holes, that the SA Open has leapfrogged above the aforementioned as the most prestigious tournament in the country.

They used to call the Nedbank Golf Challenge, ‘Africa’s Major’. However, the work Ernie Els has put into raising the profile of the SA Open, and the brilliant endorsement given by world No 2 McIlroy, suggest that in a few years that mantle should be handed over to one of the oldest national Opens in the world.

Those who walked the fairways over the four days in mid-January left Glendower salivating at what they had seen and they promised to be back next year. Many went on to social media to call it the best golfing experience they’d had and the crowds impressed all the players, as well as Els himself. He took to Twitter to say he had goosebumps before the playoff.

Hopefully, the success of the event will encourage more of the higher-ranked players to sign up for the 2018 event. Only three of the world’s top 100 teed up at Glendower – McIlroy, Andy Sullivan and Brandon Stone – and Els himself had a dig at some of the missing faces, including his countrymen Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen. The latter, in his column in this magazine, explains his decision to play on the US Tour this season and why he is sidestepping the European Tour.

In this age of the modern professional golfer, money talks, and R15-million isn’t a lot of money when converted into euros, sterling and dollars, and that affects a player’s schedule.

But, with McIlroy being the perfect ambassador, having nothing but good to say about his South African safari, and Els relishing the role of tournament host and ambassador, we have reason to expect bigger and better things in 2018.

McIlroy, the four-time Major winner, certainly played a full part in the week’s success and the Northern Irishman was like the Pied Piper to a legion of fans, both old and new. He won over plenty of hearts and minds and will now be the golfer South Africans support, along with their own countrymen.

Thank you Rory McIlroy, thank you Ernie Els and thank you fans of the game. The South African Open is back where it belongs.

– This column first appeared in the February 2017 issue of Compleat Golfer