Johannes

Veerman

The 29-year-old Texas A&M product dueled playing partners Henrik Stenson and 54-hole leader Tapio Pulkkanen over the final round at Albatross Golf Resort before pulling ahead with two birdies over his final seven holes to finish at 15-under 273. “Being neck-and-neck with Henrik, Tapio and Sean Crocker and a whole bunch of guys -- to come out on top, breathe a sigh of relief. I’m elated. I feel amazing,” said Veerman, whose previous best finish was a third place at the Irish Open in July. “It did (feel like match play). When Tapio made birdie on the 16th I knew I needed to make mine to stay within distance. Then on the 18th, I knew if I put one in play, it’s a simple hole, but it would put pressure on him because it’s not easy from the rough. To finally break out and win on the European Tour, it’s a dream come true.” On the season, Veerman has made nine cuts in 15 starts, and he’s riding a wave of four straight that includes the podium finish in Ireland, a T-8 at the Scottish Open and T-46 at the 149th Open. With the win, Veerman is projected to move up 18 spots to 29th in the Race to Dubai.

The 29-year-old Texan finished four shots behind tournament winner Lucas Herbert but noted the experience gained by being in contention and playing in the final group in the final round was invaluable: “It’s all about understanding yourself and knowing that I can play in the final group, and I can play in the final group when it’s raining and playing along with Lucas who is a great player,” Veerman said. “Just what I take away from this is that my game is good enough to play there and I think I’m good enough to play there and overall, it’s a great week.” Veerman is 6-for-12 this season in cuts made and his performance in Ireland was a great rebound off missed cuts at the U.S. Open and BMW International. He’ll make his second career start in a major when he tees it up in the British Open. This week marks Veerman’s tournament debut at the abrdn Scottish Open.

The Texan enters the week ranked 265th in the OWGR and 78th in the Race to Dubai. He was 343rd in the OWGR at this time last year so he’s making progress on the world’s stage. Highlights over the last year include a T7 at this event last year, a T8 at the Portugal Masters, and a T4 at the Cyprus Showdown. Overall, he ranks 3rd on tour in scoring average (69.79) this season behind only Tommy Fleetwood and Andy Sullivan. Veerman is gaining strokes over the field in all four sub-categories of strokes gained, including +0.97 SG:Putting per Round which is the fifth-best on tour. The 27-year-old is having a breakout campaign and gamers should continue to target him in weekly formats.

After the drama of Thursday, when Veerman thrashed the Bushwillow Course with a lap of 62 he turned his attention to the Firethorn Course at Randpark GC in Johannesburg and it was quite a challenge. He made bogey at the first before suddenly bouncing into action with a hat trick of birdies at the third, fourth and fifth. However, he then gave two strokes back at the sixth and seventh. The back nine was little better. He went birdie-bogey at the 11th and 12th, then bogey-birdie at the 14th and 15th, both times his errors were on par-5s. It’s been a brilliant start to ET for the American. T7 in South Africa, T21 in Mauritius and T10 in Australia.

Veerman’s score came on the easier Bushwillow layout although doesn’t count as a course record due to preferred lies being in place. The 27-year-old made a steady start with two birdies (2 and 5) along with seven pars on the front. But the fireworks came after the turn as he registered a hat-trick of birdies at 10, 11 and 12 before closing with a quartet of par breakers from Nos. 15-18. The World No. 327 has played some fine golf over the last couple of months so this doesn’t come too far out of left field. He finished fast to win his card at Q School and has already posted two top tens and T21 in his first three events. That includes T10 in the Aussie PGA and T7 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on his last start in South Africa. Veerman’s lowest round in those events was 67 while his best finish on the European Tour is solo fourth in last year’s Maybank Championship in Malaysia.

The American is making a habit of this. Last week in the Kenya Open he shot 76-65-68-68 to rank 122-33-18-17 at the end of each round. This week he opened with a 72 that had him T64 before he added 69-69-66 to grab the first European Tour top ten of his career and a decent check too. His Sunday circuit start in sensational style as he turned the first, third, fifth and sixth holes red. After a brief respite he again started to attack the course, ticking the 11th and 13th. But he could only add five pars heading home. Nonetheless, a fine week’s work at Saujana G&CC in Kuala Lumpur and he can head to the Indian Open hoping this time he makes a decent start and can still end the week on his high speed birdie train.

The 26-year-old has risen through the ranks of the Asian golf network in the last few years, winning on the Asian Development Tour in 2016, enjoying solid main tour campaigns in the following two seasons. The challenge now is to turn that into results in co-sanctioned European Tour events. Early in 2017 he recorded back-to-back T12s in this tournament and the World Super 6 Perth, but since then he went on a run of 2-for-12 at this level, breaking it with T17 last week in the Kenya Open. He raced through the field after a 76 to start, carding 65-68-68. He is 9-for-11 in Malaysia, mostly on Asia’s second tier, with seven finishes of T12 or better.

The 24-year-old American earned Asian Tour playing rights at the end of 2015, but they were limited. No matter, he split his time with the second tier Asian Development Tour in some style. On the latter he notched six top tens including a debut win to top the rankings; on the former he ticked four top tens to end the year 50th on the Order of Merit. He was 9-for-9 last year on the Asian Tour and though he is just 2-for-4 this term his T12 in last week’s Maybank Championship can be marked down as one of his strongest performances. He backed that up Thursday with a stunning second nine. He had opened on the back stretch, circling 11 and 12, squaring the 18th. But he marched birdie-par-birdie-par-birdie-par-birdie from the 1st to scoot home in 32 swings.

The 24-year-old American was an impressive rookie on the 2016 Asian Tour, going 9-for-9 to secure full playing rights this term, something he also did by winning the Development Tour at the same time. This year he has missed two cuts already (in Simgapore and Bangladesh) but has actually built on his reputation thanks to finishing T12 in both his last two starts, the co-sanctioned Maybank Championship and World Super 6 Perth. He ranked third for Driving Distance in Malaysia and seventh for Putting Average; stats which reflect his strengths through the 2016 season. He made a first visit to India when finishing T64 in last December’s Panasonic Open.