Joburg Open Each-Way Tips: 35/1 Van's the man

• Dani Van Tonder can transfer his Sunshine Tour winning ways

• We'll stick with Ryan Van Velzen

• Todd Clements showed promise last week 

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Last week's South African Open was a bit of a damp squib - literally so, in fact, when a potentially tasty finale was ruined by a second deluge in a few days which prompted the cancellation of the final day of action and resulted in a play-off between the 54-hole leaders.

An extra pity for the column given we had 40/141.00 shot Branden Grace poised to contend from two shots off that lead.

Now the action moves up to the high veldt and the Houghton GC in Johannesburg.

It's a venue that was the original host of the Alfred Dunhill Championship - and actually witnessed the first professional wins of both Adam Scott and Justin Rose.

The set-up is different these days, however.

Back in 2007, the club decided on an upgrade, asking Jack Nicklaus to renovate.

Like so many Joburg courses it has a mature parkland property to is pretty much tree-lined and as such remains tighter than a Nicklaus original. The greens were raised, because Nicklaus likes them that way, but not by much and they are smaller than he prefers.

As always with golf in this part of the world, altitude plays a part. The ball flies far and there are golfers who love that, others who find the maths a bit discombobulating.

Main Bet: Dani Van Tonder 1pt each-way @ 33/1

Back in early 2021, the South African Dani Van Tonder rode a wave of excellent form on the Sunshine Tour to land the Kenya Savannah Classic and with it win a full DP World Tour card.

He'd won a couple of times at Sunshine Tour level in 2014, again in 2019 but then four titles came in a 2020 rush.

At the end of 2021 he also added the South African Open but that year it didn't carry co-sanctioning status with the DP World Tour.

He played well at times in Europe but lost his card, found himself back on his home circuit and since the middle of last year he has flourished again.

He won two minor events in August, then added the SDC Open and MyGolfLife Open back-to-back in late January and early February.

Throughout this revival I've had him in mind to back but have been waiting for the right time to bite. Leopard Creek I let slide by, so too the Mauritius Open and also last week in Durban.

But this week I'm interested because Van Tonder's success in Kenya was no fluke: he likes playing tree-lined traditional courses and he likes playing them in thin air.

A win at Glendower proves that being both at altitude and traditional. He's also won at Euphoria on the high veldt and also at Pecanwood just a few weeks ago. That latter is also a Jack Nicklaus design (albeit original).

He has a rum swing, but in this week's circumstances Van Tonder knows what he is doing with it - and he finished third at Houghton in 2022 (in other words after the course changes), an effort that included a second round 63.

Next Best: Ryan Van Velzen 1pt each-way @ 90/1

The South African youngster Ryan Van Velzen was part of the plan in the Kenya Open a few weeks ago and he nearly rewarded us in finishing T11.

He's only played 22 times in DP World Tour co-sanctioned events and enough of his good work has come on courses that suggest to me that he's under-rated yet again this week.

That was a second T11 at Muthaiga, for example, and that course is tree-lined and at the same altitude as this week.

He's also finished T11 at Glendower - tree-lined and in Johannesburg.

He was also second in the 2023 South African Open at Blair Atholl on the high veldt.

We can also add another second place in South Africa at Leopard Creek.

He has also won a Sunshine Tour event at Euphora and Pretoria.

He missed the cut last week in Durban but he can be forgiven that - this is much more like the sort of test he enjoys and he can improve on his T47 at Houghton in 2023 when he carded a first round 68 and third round 67.

Final Bet: Todd Clements 1pt each-way @ 75/1

Back in the 2023 season, Englishman Todd Clements landed a victory in August in Czechia but before that while he'd never actually managed a top 20 he had seen some top 10 action prior to the final round.

One example was in this tournament at Houghton in the final weeks of 2022 when he opened with a 67 to sit ninth and another 66 had him ninth with 18 holes to play.

He's had the odd hint of a return to his best form in recent months including ninth in the Genesis Championship in Korea last October and then, more importantly, he recorded two 66s to sit fourth at halfway in Durban last week.

A Saturday 76 ruined his week but that's a nice hint of something better to come and this week could be it.

He hasn't played any altitude golf recently but he was T13 at Club de Campo in Madrid last autumn and T33 at Tahoe Mountain in the Californian mountains in the summer.

That win in Czechia came in thin air too. Nothing like as thin as Joburg but high enough for a few calculations to be made.

Casey Jarvis was almost part of the team - again, like Van Velzen, it would have been a case of sticking with him after the Kenya Open. I'm going to hope he slips back the nice side of 50s on the exchange by Wednesday night.

Now read Steve Rawlings' preview of the Joburg Open.

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