George

Coetzee

All three of these golfers opened with rounds of -5 points or worse which had them all sniffing the bottom of the leaderboard. This is the second straight mid-tourney WD for Coetzee who called it quits during last week’s Barbasol Championship, as well. Canizares also played last week and missed the cut while Siem settled for a T81 finish. All three of these golfers rank 99th or lower on the DP World Tour Rankings and didn’t get any help from their trip to the States.

The 35-year-old, who celebrates his birthday in 10 days (July 18th), was 3-over thru 13 holes, 3-over total after an even-par 72 in R1. No reason was furnished for the mid-tourney WD, his first in 43 PGA TOUR events, but, he was eight short of the projected cut line with five holes remaining, and is in the published field at next week’s opposite-field Barracuda, so perhaps he just wanted to get a head start. The South African, who was making his first TOUR start since a missed cut at the 2021 PGA Championship (75-79), is best remembered stateside for a T7 at the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits, which remains his most recent top 10 (of two) on TOUR.

The 35-year-old South African carded a bogey-free, 8-under 64 on Sunday to tie Frenchman Matthieu (T-15) for low round of the day. After posting his first birdie at No. 5, he rattled off four straight over Nos. 9-12 and another three straight at Nos. 15-17. Coetzee finished at 21-under 267, one stroke out of a playoff won by Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal. It marked his second top-10 of the season and his second straight after finishing T-9 last month at the Ras al Khaimah Classic. The five-time DPWT winner made four cuts in six starts this season, and he’s in the field for this week’s Steyn City Championship at The Club at Steyn City in Johannesburg.

The South African has a win and a T3 from his last two European Tour starts and also made the top three in a home Sunshine Tour event inbetween. After first-round exits in both 2012 and 2013 at this event, Coetzee beat Steve Stricker and Patrick Reed at Dove Mountain last year before losing 3&1 to eventual winner Jason Day in the last 16. His career singles record in all match-play events is 5-7-1. The new round-robin format guarantees every player three games at least and Coetzee will line up in Group 5 alongside Jim Furyk, Martin Kaymer and Thongchai Jaidee.

A staple not only the Sunshine Tour, but also the DP World Tour, the South African has five then-European Tour titles to his credit. With his latest coming at the 2020 Portugal Masters, Coetzee enjoyed a September to remember as he captured the Titleist Championship on the Sunshine Tour the week before. While it has been a bit of a struggle since, missing numerous cuts on the European Tour and hardly contending outside of a solo 11th-place finish at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship nearly a year ago, the 35-year-old did add to his Sunshine Tour resume with a victory at the Vodacom Origins of Golf – De Zalze in August. Finishing in a tie for sixth in 2020, Coetzee hopes a return to a familiar setting may produce a similar result this week.

“As I walk, I can’t remember every hole from last year, but it also comes with a bit of expectation and I’m just trying to dampen it down a little bit and just try and play golf,” said the 35-year-old South African, who shot 66-66 on the weekend last year to win by two strokes over Laurie Canter. “I know I’ve just got to play golf and try and avoid thinking about all the other stuff and just try and find my flow and enjoy the golf again. It’s obviously tricky having won here last year and the expectations are pretty high.” Coetzee, a five-time European Tour winner, is familiar with winning the same event twice, which he did at the Tshwane Open in 2015 and 2018, but he’s yet to successfully defend a title and has registered just two top 10s since his Portugal victory. On the season, he’s made 10 cuts in 17 starts with his best finish being a T-10 at the Saudi International in February. Coetzee finished T-46 in his most recent start at the Andalucia Masters. In eight previous starts at the Portugal Masters, he’s never missed a cut with four top 10s including his 2020 win.

In his debut at this tournament last year Coetzee carded a pair of 75s and departed the country early, but he makes a return with more golf under his belt in recent weeks than most in the field, partly due to ET inactivity and partly his own involvement on the Sunshine Tour (he was T2 in the Dimension Data Pro-am and T8 in the SA Tour Championship). His Middle East record is strong. In Qatar, in fact, it is superb: eight starts, seven cuts made, six top 12s, twice second. In the U.A.E. he does boast five top tens in 22 starts, but only one of them in his last 15 appearances.

The burly South African has always been fond of certain venues. Vilamoura for the Portugal Masters? Seven starts, all T31 or better, three top tens. Doha for the Qatar Masters? Eight starts, seven results of T35 or better, five top tens. Add this track to that list. He was a bit of a surprise winner here in 2015 when he admitted to guarding a surfing injury, but he backed it up with T9 on course defense in 2017. He also proved he just likes the island itself when collecting T27 and T28 at Anahita. He finished T24 last week in the Dunhill Championship, T3 at the Open de France last month and was a winner of a minor Sunshine Tour event earlier this month.

That’s two swings back from fellow South African Brandon Stone. The 33-year-old, who finished third at last week’s Open de France, had an adventurous outward nine with four birdies (10, 12, 15 and 17), a bogey (13) and eagle-3 at 18 after draining his approach from 109 yards. He wobbled early on his second nine with bogeys at 1 and 3 but picked up shots at 4, 5 and 7. “I felt really comfortable with the putter out there,” he said. “Every putt I had I kind of felt like I could give it a go, try and make it. And I guess if you have that attitude, you’ll make a couple more.” Coetzee has three previous top sevens at the course so is definitely a dangerman heading into the weekend.

A fourth top ten of the season for the burly South African and one which left him rueing a decent chance of claiming the win. In fact, although he made bogey at the first, with birdies at the third, ninth, tenth and 11th he was suddenly in with a great chance of victory. But a triple bogey-7 at the 15th, where he found the water, ultimately cost him very dear. The consolation was a first top ten finish in six attempts at the course. “Up-and-down,” he said. “I was quite happy with the way I played today because I had just one bad hole. Maybe tomorrow I’ll say I’m feeling good about it. At the moment, not that great.”