Jaco van Zyl needs a good finish at Wentworth this week as he looks to take the next step on the European Tour. The 37-year-old’s main focus is on the European Tour, where has performed admirably but not in the shame fashion as last season, which was highlighted by a sole-second result at the Turkish Airlines Open.
The South African won at the Sunshine Tour’s Eye of Africa PGA Championship after a play-off, proving that his knee injuries are a thing of the past.
The Dainfern Golf Club member shot rounds of 68, 72 and 72 last week at the Irish Open to be well placed going into the final round before capitulating with a final-round 75. His season has a similar look to it, with no fewer than eight top-30 finishes. Closer inspection shows that two of those eight finishes have been converted into top-10s, at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Tshwane Open.
After a breakthrough 2015 season where he climbed 295 places in the world rankings, Van Zyl has only climbed another eight so far this year. His sits 59th in the world and although his US Open ticket is booked already, cracking the top-50 would allow him into WGC events which would be a major achievement for him.
The Pretoria-born golfer will know that to achieve this he needs to start contending, and it starts this week at the BMW PGA Championship. His record at Wentworth Club is not good and his best finish to date was a tie for 39th in 2011. Last year he tied for 51st.
