EPGA Tshwane Open Preview

Some of the top European players in the world will make the trip to Waterkloof, South Africa and the Pretoria Country Club for the Tshwane Open this week. With the majority of the top European Tour stars already set to play in the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship this week, the field is expected to be wide open with a new winner set to be crowned for the fifth year in a row. We won’t see guys like Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Jordan Spieth. That means the door is wide open for someone else to move up the ranks and claim the crown at the Tshwane Open. The favorite going into the competition will be George Coetzee.

Event Details

Event: Tshwane Open

Category: European

Date: March 2-5

Location: Pretoria Country Club, Waterkloof, South Africa

The defending Tshwane Open champion Charl Schwartzel is in Mexico City competing in the WGC event. Schwartzel dominated this event a year ago but with a much different looking field it will be a little more difficult to lock down what to expect this week. It’s interesting to see that a number of golfers decided to participate in the WGC-Mexico event as it is going to be played at an abnormal elevation. Not many players are used to that and it could throw them off their rhythm when they return to the regular circuit.

First Four Winners

2016: Charl Schwartzel -16

2015: George Coetzee -14

2014: Ross Fisher -20

2013: Dawie van der Walt -21

What To Know About The Course

The Pretoria Country Club field is described as tight and tree lined, with several ponds on the front nine and a river than runs through holes 13 to 17 on the back nine. The rough looks absolutely brutal so the golfers will need to lean on their Driving Accuracy in order to avoid falling in to the course’s traps. Schwartzel ranked 18^th in Driving Accuracy when he won here a year ago but he also ranked second in Driving Distance. Schwartzel’s iron play was excellent as well a year ago and that is another reason why Scrambling will be an important statistic to consider for this course.

The Field

With Schwartzel and a number of other top European players in Mexico City this week, the field appears to be wide open with 2015 winner George Coetzee returning as the sports betting favorite to win outright at +1000 odds. Coetzee is followed by Dean Burmeester at +1400 odds, Thomas Aiken at +2000 odds and Jaco van Zyl at +2200 odds. Peter Uhlein, Haotong Li and Romain Langasque round out the list of sports betting favorites for this week’s event. Without a big name in the field, it allows for bettors to take a shot with someone who they feel has a good chance to win. There is no clear-cut consensus.

A Good Matchup To Bet: Dean Burmeester over Jaco van Zyl

Jaco van Zyl has been consistent enough overall to consistently land among the sports betting favorites in some of these weaker fields but he simply doesn’t win enough and he isn’t exactly on fire heading in to this tournament. Meanwhile, Burmeester has been a lot more consistent of late and he has done well at this tournament in the past including a third place finish in 2015 and a fourth place finish here last year.

Top-Five Pick: George Coetzee

Coetzee only ranked 39^th in Driving Accuracy when he won here in 2015 but he did rank 10^th in Driving Distance and there is no doubt that he has the tools to win at this course. Coetzee’s experience should only help him and while we have him as a lock to finish in the top-five, it might be smart to put some money down on him to win this tournament outright as a +1000 favorite in a watered down field.

Tshwane Open Tee Times

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