Reigning Lombard Insurance Classic champion Merrick Bremner is ready for his title defence this week, but won’t put any pressure on himself when he tees off at the Royal Swazi Spa Country Club.
Bremner won this event in 2008 and again in 2013 before becoming the first man to win it on three occasions when he won it in a playoff against CJ du Plessis in 2016.
He seems to love Swaziland, and his results here have shown it.
‘I really enjoy this layout,’ he said.
‘I think this course has many opportunities for one to score low. There’s also a couple of par-fives that I think if you play well, it’s easy to capitalise on. So, it feels really good to be back where I have had success before and I am confident that I will play well.’
Confident as he may be, Bremner is under no illusion that winning this event, which is heading into its 11th edition, will be easy.
‘Look, I know it will not be easy, but I always play to win. It would be nice to win it and become the first player to do it back-to-back,’ Bremner says.
Bremner is a five-time winner on the Sunshine Tour and he knows that as the defending champion and three-time winner of this event, he will be regarded by some as one of the men to beat at Royal Swazi.
‘I don’t put pressure on myself. I play it simple and just take things as they come,’ he said, before adding, ‘I have had good times here and if I just keep playing the same way, something might come.’
If this season’s results – sixth at Investec Swazi Open, 18th at Zambia Sugar Open and 32nd at the 2017 Zimbabwe Open – are anything to go by, then it might be safe to assume that Bremner’s wish to become the first player to clinch this title four times is not misguided.
