George Coetzee makes a rare appearance on the PGA Tour this week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, which he got into by winning the Dimension Data Pro-Am earlier in the year.
In his three previous appearances on the tour this season, Coetzee has recorded a best finish of tied-35th at the Puerto Rico Open. His excursion to Firestone Country Club will be a major step up in quality given the world class field that has been assembled.
The three-time European Tour winner looked set to have a standout 2016 when he recorded a tied-seventh finish at the PGA Championship at the back end of last year, but of late has struggled. A top-15 finish at the Joburg Open was followed by a top-10 finish at the Qatar Masters. His win at Fancourt came next that got him into this week’s tournament, but he has delivered very little since then. To win the Dimension Data Pro-Am, Coetzee would have had to tackle the different challenges presented by the Montagu Course, Outeniqua Course and famed Links course meaning that the 29-year-old is good in adaptable conditions. This could be in his favour as he looks to get back to his best.
His win at Fancourt came next that got him into this week’s tournament, but he has delivered very little since then. To win the Dimension Data Pro-Am, Coetzee would have had to tackle the different challenges presented by the Montagu, Outeniqua and famed Links courses, meaning that the 29-year-old is good in adaptable conditions. This could be in his favour as he looks to get back to his best.
His top result since winning was a tie for 27th place at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open and he’s currently in a run of three missed cuts in four starts. The cut that he did make was at the Memorial tournament where he finished 73rd, only beating two golfers of all of those that made the weekend.
His clear weakness this season has been his putting where he ranks 200th on the European Tour, and on a course in the US this may prove fatal to any chance of recording a respectable finish. The comfort for Coetzee will be the fact that the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational has no cut, so the Pretoria-born player can have four rounds at a championship golf course to work on his game ahead of his trip to the Open Championship in two weeks’ time.
Coetzee will be making his maiden appearance at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, although he has experience in WGC events, having played at the HSBC Champions, Cadillac Championship and Dell Match Play events. His best finish at a WGC event has been tied-ninth at the 2014 matchplay event, while his best result in a strokeplay WGC event in America is tied-16th at the 2014 Cadillac Championship.
