George Coetzee tees up at his sixth Open Championship on Thursday, hoping to add to his two top-20 performances at the major since his debut in 2011.
The 29-year-old recorded a 15th place finish at Royal St. George’s on his debut before picking up 18th place at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) in 2014. These were his best finishes at a major until a tied-seventh spot at the PGA Championship last year. This week comes at a good time for the three-time European Tour winner after some impressive showings of late.
The Pretoria resident did struggle last week at the Scottish Open, shooting 79 and 74 to miss the cut, but it’s what happened before that, that should be noted. A top-25 finish at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on a challenging layout would give Coetzee some confidence that he could cope with what Royal Troon may throw at him this week. He also has six top-30 finishes to his name this season in addition to a victory.
While it was a Sunshine Tour victory, it came at the Fancourt links, showing that the Pretoria-born golfer has the game for the links layout. If one takes into consideration that the tournament also attracts one of the strongest fields (due to the prize for the winner being a ticket to the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) outside the Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned events, he would have needed his best game to be in tip-top shape to claim his one shot victory over the rapidly improving Dean Burmester. Throw into the equation the likes of Zander Lombard, Darren Fichardt, Brandon Stone and Jaco van Zyl being in the field as well, and we have several players that have impressed on the European Tour this season that Coetzee overcame.
The most important thing to note of Coetzee’s victory is the fact that the tournament was not just played on one course at Fancourt throughout the four days, hence his game would have had to adapt. This is a crucial element of one’s game when you have to tackle Royal Troon with its renowned changing conditions that can present two very different challenges on the same course.
This will be Coetzee’s first major of the year after missing out at the Masters and US Open and with his spot guaranteed at the PGA Championship in two weeks time, he will want to quickly get into the swing of things in terms of major championship golf.
