The Sunshine Ladies Tour returns to the Western Cape this week with the Standard Bank Ladies Open hosted by the City of Cape Town at Royal Cape Golf Club, and stalwart Stacy Bregman is eager to continue the steady improvement she has shown this season and mount a strong defence of her title.
Bregman claimed her sixth Sunshine Ladies Tour title in April last year when she won the tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s West Course, beating Lee-Anne Pace in a playoff.
She began this year’s campaign by missing the cut in the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt, but then finished tied-38th in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge at Lost City and tied-19th in last week’s Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge at Blue Valley Golf Estate, where she was in contention for the title before shooting 75 in the final round.
The timing of this week’s R600,000 54-hole tournament couldn’t be better for Bregman as she feels her game is really starting to peak ahead of Wednesday’s first round.
“I do feel like I’m starting to find the keys to my game again, even though I wasn’t playing that well at first. But I’ve felt it coming together and my results have been getting better and better,” Bregman said.
“I’m in a good space. My game is trending in the right direction and I’m feeling good. I’ve been putting really well this year, but I could be a bit better off the tees. And you’ve got to be good off the tees at Royal Cape, because it’s quite tight and old-school. It’s about positioning yourself and putting well, but it gets really tricky, especially if its windy, if you’re not in the right positions.”
The Sunshine Ladies Tour has seen strong competition this season with three different winners thus far – Kylie Henry, Tvesa Malik and Helen Kreuzer – and all three of them are in the field again this week.
They will be joined by, amongst others, South Africa’s Kiera Floyd, Gabrielle Venter, Nicole Garcia, Cara Gorlei, Tandi McCallum, Nadia van der Westhuizen and Bregman.
The Standard Bank Ladies Open adds to a Sunshine Ladies Tour schedule that has already seen just over R4-million in prize money already played for over the last three tournaments.
“We are proud to be partnering to deliver this tournament,” said Jacques Els, head of wealth and investment at Standard Bank. “As a bank which proudly supports inclusion and diversity, we believe that this tournament represents some of the important values that we believe in.
“The Sunshine Ladies Tour is a perfect vehicle for us to not just build awareness, but to rather build something meaningful that has enduring value for the community of women’s professional golf. It’s therefore a great privilege for us to be able to support the growth of women’s professional golf and the ongoing drive of women in sport through the Standard Bank Ladies Open.”
The tournament will also play a key role in determining the overall Sunshine Ladies Tour Order of Merit champion, with the winner here earning an historic exemption in the Sunshine Tour’s new Waterfall City Tournament of Champions powered by Attacq to be played in May and offering a first prize of R1-million.
Thomas Abt, commissioner of the Sunshine Tour and speaking on behalf of the Sunshine Ladies Tour, said: “The 2024 Sunshine Ladies Tour schedule is a fantastic endorsement of corporate South Africa’s belief in the value of women’s professional golf, and we’re delighted to have Standard Bank on the schedule. This is a true season of opportunity for our leading women’s professionals.”
Photo: Troy Winfield/Sunshine Tour
