If Jacques Kruyswijk needed confirmation of his recent good form, then being drawn with Sunshine Tour winners Danie van Tonder and Christiaan Bezuidenhout should do it.
Kruyswijk tees off in the Sun Sibaya Challenge on Wednesday with seven top 20s from his last eight starts across Southern Africa. He was sole second last week at the Origins of Golf Euphoria.
‘I’m looking to finish strong,’ he said. ‘I’d love to finish inside the top 10 on the Order of Merit, and to get a win would be fantastic.’
The 24-year-old turned professional in 2013, and is playing his best golf at the moment. He’s won seven times on the IGT Tour and once on the Big Easy Tour, but is yet to lift a Sunshine Tour trophy.
‘I won quite a few amateur tournaments when I was younger, and it’s frustrating not to have won on the Sunshine Tour yet. But I get the feeling that if I win once, then it will become a whole lot easier to win again after that,’ he said.
At last year’s Sun Sibaya Challenge he missed the cut, but bounced back with a runner-up result a week later. This time around he’s a form favourite for the R700,000 Durban tournament.
The youngster ranks 23rd on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, one place ahead of Retief Goosen and Branden Grace.
Placing among golfers of that pedigree is impressive, but it lines up with Kruyswijk’s goals for the future.
‘I see a path for myself, and I need to stick to what I have set out to achieve,’ he said.
’I also want to do well at the SA Open,’ he concluded. ‘I love the course at Glendower, and if it is even remotely possible, I’d love to get drawn with Rory McIlroy and then play better than him!
