Southern Africa

Vodacom Players Championship

The final event of 2001 and let's hope we can break the winless record in South African outrights for this year. The Vodacom Players Championship is again played the week after the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City, though for the players coming to the Royal Cape Golf Club from there, they will face a very different course to the target golf format of last week. This is a fairly tight course, but there are rewards for those who can hit it particularly long and still reasonably straight - they will miss the bunkers and tree lines designed to put a premium on driving. As in previous years though, the wind will undoubtedly be a factor as well.

A lot of attention will be on Els this week. He has won at least one event internationally every year since 1992 until this year. This is his last chance to keep that record going. True, he did win the World Cup with Retief Goosen, but that was a team event. Not the same. Were it not for that triumph in Japan and that winless year, then Els and Goosen would most probably have skipped this event. Darren Clarke had been a regular in this event, but this has been a very long year - it started on 3 January in Melbourne - and all three should be very tired. Els had been a best-price of 11/8 for the Sunshine Tour Championship in February against an even weaker field, but only finished 9th. A similar result would be no great surprise.

The three selections are therefore Rory Sabbatini, Roger Wessels and Martin Maritz. The Durban-born Sabbatini is in his homeland for the first time in three years, a spell that has included a win in the Air Canada Championship last year and two runners-up spots on the PGA Tour this year. He is a one of the longest-hitters on the PGA Tour and should secure several eagles this week. There are four par-fives and yesterday he hit wedge, eight-iron and six-iron for second shots to three of them. He is fresh, having not played in November, and should be well-motivated to impress on his home-coming.

Roger Wessels is a regular on the Sunshine Tour and very successful as well. Five weeks ago he finished 3rd in the Vodacom Trophy, he then traveled to Spain for the European Tour's Volvo Masters where he finished 12th and then came back to South Africa to win the Platinum Classic. He currently stands 6th in the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, though all the players above him has played more events this season. He finished in the top-20 on this course two years ago and beyond Els and Goosen, looks to be one of the strongest candidates to win this week.

The young Martin Maritz played in his first Tour event in January - the South African Masters - and made an immediate impact. He  last his form after the end of the 2000/01 Sunshine Tour, but that is probably a direct result of the traveling and lack of regular competitive golf. He played in 10 events on 3 other Tours - European, European Challenge and Buy.com - and secured 3 top-20 finishes, though he missed the cut in the other seven. Taking purely his results on the Sunshine Tour since his debut in January, his finishes have been 25th, 16th, 10th, 3rd, 22nd, 27th, 3rd. His is an improving player and is very capable of securing another top-5 finish this week.

Outright plays:

Rory Sabbatini to win 18/1 e.w. @ NetBetSports

Roger Wessels to win 25/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes [5 places option]

Martin Maritz to win 66/1 e.w. @ Bet365

Mid-point update:

Hopeful position after 36 holes. Maritz closed with four birdies in his last five holes to finish the day in 3rd place, just two shots behind Alan McLean and ahead of the main competition in Goosen and Els. Wessels is a further seven shots back in 30th place, but did well to make the cut after a poor opening round. No such luck with Sabbatini, he missed the cut by a considerable distance.

Final update: 1-2 and +5.75 units

It's always nice to end the season with a winning week and especially so as the +200 unit barrier is surpassed again. For a time it looked ominous as Maritz and Wessels were both in 6th place at the start of the back nine, but Maritz birdied four of six holes to surge to joint top with Els, while Wessels dropped three shots in the last four holes to finish 11th. In the end, Maritz also dropped a shot on the 17th and he finished 2nd, a shot behind Els. No big-price winner, but a decent return on the week.