Joburg Open 2021: Form guide for this week's event at Randpark

The European Tour year comes to a close in South Africa where a trilogy of tournaments will take place over the coming three weeks.

First up is the Joburg Open at Randpark, which has the honour of hosting the opening tournament of the new European Tour season.

This co-sanctioned event also forms part of South Africa's Sunshine Tour, and will involve a field of 156 players.

On the tee

Following the excitement of last Sunday's end-of-season Tour finale in Dubai, this week's offering appears to be a more sombre affair - and with a lot less prize money too.

The quality of field can be described as mediocre at best, with barely a handful of top-100 ranked golfers teeing-up in Thursday's opening round.

Whenever the non-South African entry appears lacking in quality, which is certainly the case at Randpark, it is often best to search the list of home pros to try and find the eventual champion.

However, the home contingent also appears to be a little void of star quality, although a number of pros do stand out.

Dean Burmester, winner on home soil three weeks ago, posted four 69s in Dubai to finish in a tie-for sixth on Sunday.

Another potential champ is Shaun Norris who spends most of his time in Japan nowadays, where he won the country's national open last month.

The 39-year-old was born in Johannesburg and has twice stood on the podium at Randpark.

Big hitting youngster Wilco Nienaber will attract some attention this week.

The 21-year-old finished second here last December and his game is heading in one direction only - upwards.

Latest betting for Joburg Open

As for non-South Africans, the well-travelled American Johannes Veerman is chasing a second European Tour victory of the year and is still playing solidly.

Many of Europe's higher-ranked players teeing-up in Johannesburg have enjoyed a strong year on the Challenge Tour where the quality of field is similar to that at Randpark this week.

One golfer who has already tasted victory on the European Tour is Romain Langasque.

The Frenchman made his breakthrough at Celtic Manor last year and, despite a few setbacks during 2021, can certainly prosper among this crowd.

He was runner-up at Randpark three years ago and his highest finish of 2021 came on the same continent during March - tied-5th at the Kenya Open.

Course details

Randpark Golf Club has a rich history which dates back to the early 1940s.

The club itself is 81 years old, and is situated in the north-west suburbs of the country's most populated city.

Randpark has two top-class 18-hole courses - Bushwillow and Firethorn.

Bushwillow has been in existence since the mid-1940s, while the much younger and considerably longer Firethorn opened in 1971.

This week's event will take place at Firethorn, which is a lush, parkland venue with Kikuyu grass fairways, and putting surfaces that are sown with hard-wearing ostrich grass.

Firethorn was designed by London-born pro Sid Brews, who finished second in The Open Championship of 1934.

Brews lived much of his life in South Africa, winning the country's national open eight times and he was commissioned to create Firethorn during the mid-1960s.

Since then, Firethorn has undergone a number of modifications, most recently in 2014.

At over 7,500 yards, Firethorn is a venue to suit the longer-hitters, although there are plenty of subtle changes in direction on these beautifully manicured tree-lined fairways.

Water comes into play on eight holes, often in the form of long-winding creeks.

Twitter: Andy Swales@GolfStatsAlive

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

Course form table: European Tour events staged at Randpark in 2017-18-20 (1) were played over two layouts (Firethorn (54 holes) & Bushwillow (18 holes).)