MyGolfLife Open: Pecanwood perfect for the worthy favourite

Tournament History

After an enjoyable Kenyan Open at Muthaiga Golf Club, the DP World Tour moves on to South Africa for two brand-new events in-a-row, starting with the MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwoood Golf and Country Club.

As all South African events on the DP World Tour are, the MyGolfLife Open is co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour.

Venue

Pecanwood G&CC, Hartbeespoort, South Africa

Course Details

Par 72, 7,697 yards

Situated on the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam, Pecanwood is a generally flat typical Parkland Jack Nicklaus design with generous kikuyu fairways and bent grass greens.

The signature hole is the par three 13th that plays alongside the dam to a green flanked on both sides by bunkers. One of seven holes where water comes into play.

Like last week's venue, Pecanwood is at altitude, so it won't play anywhere near as long as the yardage suggests.

Although new to the DP World Tour, it was used on the Sunshine Tour way back in 2007, when Chris Swanepoel won the now defunct Eskom Power Cup with a 17-under-par winning total over 54 holes and it also featured twice on Ernie Els' Big Easy Tour last year.

Weather Forecast

TV Coverage

No live coverage in the UK

What Will it Take to Win the MyGolfLife Open?

Given the weather looks set fair, the pros are going to devour Pecanwood and it's going to be an out-and-out birdie-fest with a winning score of 20-under-par at least.

Look to the streaky types that can put up a run of birdies and check out previous low scoring events on the DP World Tour like the Tenerife Open, the Canary Islands Championship, the Hero Open and the Dubai Championship.

Is There an Angle In?

South Africans fare well at home for obvious reasons and four of the last five DP World Tour events in South Africa have been won by a South African but it's also worth looking at form at other Nicklaus designed tracks that are used on the DP World Tour.

Matt Cooper puts up a great case for Andy Sullivan on the strength of his form at Nicklaus designed tracks here, and the two we've seen most recently on the DP World Tour are Mount Juliet, which hosted the Irish Open, and the London Club, which hosted the Cazoo Classic.

Lucas Herbert won the Irish Open with -19 score and Calum Hill won the Cazzo Classic in 16-under-par.

In-Play Tactics

It may well be worth keeping an eye on the weather forecast. There's barely a zephyr predicted so far but the wind is predicted to get up fractionally on Friday morning so a AM-PM draw might be marginally beneficial.

With no TV coverage, placing your bets in-between rounds will be the safest way to play the event.

Market Leaders

Understandably, given we're so very much in the dark, this is a very open market with Dean Burmester at the head of it.

The South African won the Tenerife Open in 25-under-par par last year and he's won on the Sunshine Tour eight times already.

He lost his way in round three last week when he recorded a nine at the par three 13th and he followed it with a bogey at 14 and a double-bogey at 15.

He lost by ten strokes in the end but there's nine of them in that three-hole stretch so his tied 26th in Kenya wasn't as bad as it looks on paper. Prior to that he'd finished second at the Dimension Data on the Sunshine Tour and this open and scorable track will be more to his liking. He's a worthy favourite.

Ryder Cop star, Bernd Wiesberger, is the only other player in the field trading at less than 30.029/1 but he has only an ordinary record in South Africa, with form figures reading 19-MC-51-3 and he missed the cut last time out in the Ras al Khaimah Championship a month ago.

Selections

I'll have one or maybe two in the Find Me a 100 Winner column tomorrow but for now I'm going with just two, the aforementioned Dean Burmester and the bang in form German, Hurley Long.

Long arrives in South Africa after a third placed finish in the Ras al Khaimah Classic and a second placed finish last week in Kenya. Given the two tracks are so diverse, that's form of note and it can't be ignored.

Selections:
Dean Burmester @ 21.020/1
Hurley Long @ 60.059/1

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter