Jaco van Zyl tees it up at the BMW International Open this week after a disappointing week saw him miss the cut at the US Open.
The 37-year-old will be confident given his season before he crossed the pond for the year’s second major. On the European Tour, he has collected six top-20 finishes, included a tie for seventh last time out at the BMW PGA Championship. He also had the chance to play in the WGC-Dell Matchplay and performed admirably halving a match with Danny Willett, and beating Billy Horschel, to end in a tie for 28th place.
After a stellar 2015 where he rose well into the world’s top-100 ranked golfers, 2016 has been a year of grinding out results. He sits 38th in the Race to Dubai standings having won prize money of €399,704. His position puts him on the right track to making the season ending Final’s Series, something he achieved last year and will looking to repeat.
The Pretoria-born golfer ranks 18th on tour in sand saves but only 158th in driving distance, meaning he is one of the short hitters on tour and has to rely heavily on his iron play and short game around the green. After shooting good rounds at Wentworth, it was clear that van Zyl has one aim in mind as he continually alluded to ‘getting the monkey off my back,’ that being his first European Tour win, having won 14 times already on the Sunshine Tour.
Van Zyl is not one of the headline acts in Pulheim this week, but if he plays to his strengths, his form this season may translate into his maiden win come Sunday.
