Jaco Van Zyl leads a nine-strong South African contingent in Sweden for the 2017 Nordea Masters at Barseback Golf and Country Club in Skåne, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
The field is headlined by Swedish pair Henrik Stenson (world number five) and Alex Noren (BMW PGA Championship winner), with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick the only other player inside the world’s top 50 teeing it up this week.
The trio will tee off together at 08:10 on Thursday.
Stenson finished T3 last week at Wentworth and threatened to chase down countryman Noren for a large part of Sunday afternoon before going from -5 after 12 holes to -3 with three to play. Noren’s blistering Sunday 62 saw him finish two clear of Italy’s Francesco Molinari, and three clear of Stenson, Nicolas Colsaerts and Japan’s rising star Hideto Tanihara.
Van Zyl moved up the leaderboard nicely on Sunday as he closed with a five under par 67 on the West Course to record a T14 finish, and will be off at 08:10 alongside Gary Stal and Kristoffer Broberg. A recent slide down the rankings means he starts on Thursday as the third-highest ranked South African in the field behind Dylan Frittelli and Richard Sterne.
Frittelli was edged out of the top 100 in the latest world rankings as he continues his search for his maiden European Tour win – his best result this season came at the Volvo China Open where he finished second, which came on the back of his T5 finish at the Shenzhen International.
Recent US Open qualifier George Coetzee, a winner of three European Tour events, joins fellow qualifier and Bradley Dredge and Mikko Ilonen for the first two rounds.
First round tee times:
Photo: Luke Walker/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
