Dean Burmester and Darren Fichardt used local knowledge at the Nedbank Golf Challenge to play their way into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
Both players finished with a 72 in the final round which was enough to send them into this week’s finale where the top 60 players on the Order of Merit are in action.
Fichardt, who replicated last year’s top 10 finish with a share of ninth in 2018, jumped 14 places to finish in 58th place with Burmester’s T11 finish at Sun City helping him rise seven places, two ahead of his countrymen.
Brandon Stone remains SA’s best in the Order of Merit despite a slow week on home soil. He will tee on Thursday in 23rd place, needing a big week to bump him into the top 10 who will share the bonus pot on offer.
Branden Grace, the 2017 NGC champion, heads to Dubai in 36th place with Erik van Rooyen and Dylan Frittelli directly beneath him. All three have earned more than a million Race to Dubai points.
It will be a special week at Jumeirah Golf Estates as the DP World Tour Championship celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Since its first appearance on the European Tour’s International Schedule in 2009, only three players have appeared in every edition – Molinari, Westwood and Martin Kaymer.
Seven different players from four countries have won the season-ending prize – Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick from England, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Spaniards Alvaro Quiros and Jon Rahm, and Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson from Sweden.
