The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 10 January 2012 /

Charl Schwartzel bids to make it three-in-a-row in Joburg but he's a predictably short priced favourite so our man looks for the value at the European Tour's second event of 2012...

Tournament
Joburg Open - The middle leg of the South African swing and once again, it's a co-sanctioned event between the European and Sunshine Tour. This will be the sixth staging.

Venue
Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club

Course Details
The unusually big field (210) play over both the East and West Courses over the first two days with the weekend being played out on the tougher East Course. Both have a par of 71 and the West Course is the shorter of the two, measuring 7,237 yards, compared to the East Course which measures 7,592.

Useful Sites
www.royaljk.za.com
https://www.joburgopen.com

TV Coverage
Live on Sky Sports - 8.00am Thursday and Friday. 10.00am Saturday and Sunday.

Last Five Winners
2011 - Charl Schwartzel -19
2010 - Charl Schwartzel -23
2009 - Anders Hansen -15
2008 - Richard Sterne -13 (Playoff)
2007 - Ariel Canete -19

Typical Winner
Inaugural winner, Argentine Ariel Canete, has since returned to the obscurity from whence he came but the next four winners were all fairly predictable and much like last week's event it may well pay to stick with the South African 'names'.

Market Leader
It's just about impossible to crab Charl Schwartzel. He's been in fine form for a while now and he'll be attempting to win this event for a third straight year. Since his success last year he's won the US Masters and if he turns up in top form he'll take the world of beating. Last year his driving was awful at times and yet he still won by a comfortable four strokes. Those that cashed in on Louis Oosthuizen at a short price last week may well be prepared to back Charl at less than [5.0] but backing anyone that short isn't for me. That said, he plays the tougher East Course first on Thursday and I may well look to get him onside in-running.

Selections
I wasn't going to play George Coetzee before the off but given he's been allocated an early tee-time on the easier West Course on Thursday I thought I'd better get him covered.

I'm happy to overlook last week's average performance in the Africa Open as the venue wouldn't be ideal for George and I think he'll improve considerably on that effort. I'm not entirely comfortable about taking just [22.0] about a player yet to win on the European Tour but just like Paul Krishnamurty, I'm expecting big things from George this year and this looks an ideal opportunity for him to open his account.

Richard Sterne is considerably shorter than he was last week but he's far from the gamble he was when I backed him then. Troubled with injury, he's just finished a second stint on the sidelines. He didn't pick up a club for around ten months and only started playing again just before Christmas. By his own admission, his short game, and his chipping in particular, was a little rusty last week but there was enough evidence to suggest he retains all of his considerable ability.

To finish sixth last week after such a long lay-off was a fantastic performance. He wouldn't need to find an awful lot of improvement to figure strongly here and a second Joburg Open title is far from out of the question.

Joburg Open Selections:
George Coetzee @ [22.0]
Richard Sterne @ [26.0]

I'll be back tomorrow with a preview of the US Tour's event, the Sony Open, and I'll probably kick off the In-Play Blog on Friday.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: