Southern Africa

Dimension Data Pro-Am

Another continent and another pro-am. This time the venue is Sun City and the defending champions are Lee and John Westwood. Lee won the pro title last year and also helped his father to the amateur title. A rare double and with brother-in-law Andrew Coltart in the field this year, this could become a family monopoly. With the likes of Westwood, Clarke, Goosen and Sun City multi-winners Price and McNulty in the field, the prices are very shot for these five, with four of them at 10/1 and under. The value lies elsewhere and particularly with Ladbrokes offering place finishes for the first five.

The first two are European stalwarts and perennial nearly-men, Paul McGinley and Andrew Coltart. McGinley has been in South Africa for three weeks and has played steady if not leaderboard-threatening golf. That may change given the drop in field quality beyond the leading five players and he does have a record of securing place finishes in the Southern Hemisphere. The same can also be said about Coltart who topped the Australasian Tour Order of Merit a couple of years ago. He looked good at the Matchplay and this is his first start since then. Like McGinley, it is very hard to see him out of the top-20, it is just a matter of converting a decent position into a place finish.

The third pick is relative unknown Martin Maritz who has only played in two Tour events, but finishes of 25th [South African Masters] and 16th [South African Open] are impressive in themselves. That he has featured on the leaderboard over the weekend in both events is a very impressive debut to Tour golf. Every reason to suspect that he will have learned from these experiences and be more able to maintain that leaderboard position this week.

Outright plays:

Paul McGinley to win 33/1 e.w @ Ladbrokes

Andrew Coltart to win 33/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes

Martin Maritz to win 80/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes

Mid-point update:

The delayed 2nd round was completed this morning and while none of the three selections are currently in a place position, two are certainly in contention. McGinley lies in 15th place, just three shots outside the top-5, while 80/1 shot Maritz lies just one shot out in 6th place   Coltart at least made the cut, but four shots behind McGinley he will need a great weekend to threaten the leaderboard.

Final update: 0-3 and -3.00 units

Once again Maritz faltered having got himself into a great position - he finished in 10th place. Better performance than McGinley and Coltart who finished in 25th and 22nd place respectively. Still a blank on the Sunshine Tour outrights