Cape Town, 15 December 2008: The strongest field in South African Open Championship history has been boosted by the recent victories of three of the tournament’s stars.
Tim Clark, Henrik Stenson and Richard Sterne all head into the tournament at Pearl Valley Golf Estates - the fourth in The Race to Dubai - as the most in-form golfers in the field of European Tour and Sunshine Tour campaigners.
Clark became only the third South African to win the Australian Open this past weekend, and is looking to emulate legendary compatriots Gary Player and Bobby Locke as winners of both events in the same year.
Stenson is still revelling in his impressive nine-stroke victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, and will be out to become only the second Swede to ever win the South African Open after Matthias Gronberg in 2000.
And Sterne heads to Pearl Valley Golf Estates having just completed a dramatic triumph in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek to claim his fourth European Tour title and his second this year alone. The young South African also wrapped up the Sunshine Tour's Order of Merit race with this past weekend's victory.
Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini, David Frost, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Justin Rose, Trevor Immelman, Rory McIlroy and Charl Schwartzel complete the line-up of star players headed for the winelands this week.
David Spencer, CEO-Golf of Leisurecorp, said: "This event just gets better and better. We've been touting the event as a celebration of golf and it certainly is that, three tournament winners from the last two weeks leading one of the strongest ever fields in the southern hemisphere, boosted by the buzz surrounding The Race to Dubai, free entry, and activities in the public village for the whole family."
"We look forward to welcoming Tim, Henrik and Richard to Pearl Valley this week."
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Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate will host the South African Open Championship in 2011 and 2012. The Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at Serengeti is the first 27-hole golf course in Gauteng and was recently named “Best New Golf Course” by Golf Digest.
The 18-hole course called Masai Mara, which means “wide open plains” in the language of the Masai, has a rugged grassland and dune-scape look. One of the unique features on the course is the par-five eighth hole with its island green. The nine-hole course called Whistling Thorn has a more classic feel.
The courses were constructed in accordance with USGA specifications, with cool season grass that provides green vistas all year round. Designed as a strategic and technical masterpiece that will test today’s best players, the sunken design of the course with its wide corridors is ideal for tournament purposes and provides optimal spectator value on almost every hole.
