The race to the end of the Sunshine Tour’s current season intensifies this week with the R2 million Stella Artois Players Championship at Dainfern Country Club which has drawn a strong field including four Investec South African Open champions and the young stars who are locked in a battle for the Rookie of the Year title.
The Stella Artois Players Championship is the penultimate tournament of the Sunshine Tour’s current season.
The 72-hole tournament, which tees off at Dainfern on Thursday, will have reigning Investec South African Open champion Thriston Lawrence in the field as well as former national Open winners Brandon Stone, Hennie Otto and Daniel van Tonder.
Lawrence also leads a stellar three-ball for the first two rounds of this event including rising Sunshine Tour stars Casey Jarvis and Martin Vorster.
Both Jarvis and Vorster have been in impressive form this season and have been battling it out for Rookie of the Year honours.
It’s a race that Jarvis is currently leading following his strong recent performances of tied ninth in the Dimension Data Pro-Am and second in the SDC Open.
Vorster remains his nearest challenger in second place, with Ryan van Velzen in third place after breaking through with his maiden Sunshine Tour title in the Limpopo Championship.
There is also a tantalising mix of players in good form at present who will be in action at Dainfern.
Luca Filippi heads into this week off the back of a tied second-place finish in the Limpopo Championship. Franklin Manchest achieved his highest finish on the Sunshine Tour in the same event with a tie for 10th.
Hennie O’Kennedy has finished in the top 20 in five of his last seven tournaments, including third in the Dimension Data Pro-Am. And Yurav Premall has made a solid start to his Sunshine Tour career with finishes of tied ninth in the Dimension Data Pro-Am and tied fifth in March’s Mediclinic Invitational.