Jonsson Workwear Open Tips 2023

From an opening show with bet365 of 45/1 which lasted a matter of minutes on Monday morning, Thriston Lawrence has been backed heavily for this week’s Jonsson Workwear Open, and quite rightly too.

I backed the Nelspruit native here at Steyn City last year on the back of a rather fortuitous win at the previous year’s Covid-affected Joburg Open, plus some further altitude form at the Kenya Open (2^nd) and MyGolfLife Open (9^th), which all seemed to point to a likely contending performance. He finished in a tie for 8^th.

Since that point in time, the 26 year-old has added a second DP World Tour victory to his CV at Crans-sur-Sierre – yes another altitude test – and then a third title at the Joburg Open in November. You’ve guessed it, that event was also played at 6,000 feet of altitude. He clearly gets the maths.

Largely off the boil since that victory at Blair Atholl, 3^rd to halfway in Thailand last month signalled an improvement, and 5^th heading into Sunday before closing with a 73 last week reinforces the assertion that something’s percolating in the South African’s game.

8^th here as I mentioned 12 months ago saw improvement throughout the week, with rounds of 69/68/68/66 moving him up the leaderboard each day, and 2^nd for SG Putting suggests that he’s very much got the measure of the putting greens here at Steyn City. 5^th for Putts per GIR last week hints at a warming of the flat stick once again now that he’s back on home soil, and I’m happy to support him here this week as a result. RESULT: T52

Strictly speaking, if we’re using an event’s title as the definition, the defending champion this week is JC Ritchie as he won the 2022 Jonsson Workwear Open which was a Challenge Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned affair held in Durban.

Whether that result has the slightest bit of relevance to this week now that the Jonsson Workwear’s support has been rewarded with this higher-profile event and shifted to Steyn City is debatable; what isn’t debatable though is that Shaun Norris won an event at this level, on this course, 12 months ago and that result cannot be ignored.

It was a family affair for the South African last year with his brother on the bag and his wife and baby daughter in the crowd, and there’s a better chance than the bookies are suggesting of a repeat performance here this week in my view given the positive signs that are evident in the 40 year-old’s game of late.

48^th at the Indian Open prompted some positive comments from Norris on Social Media, and he followed that up with 20^th at the Kenya Open a fortnight ago where a second round 67 got him into a solid halfway position before a closing 63 equalled the low round of the week.

32^nd last week at St Francis Links saw Shaun improve to 10^th place after 54 holes with progressive rounds of 74, 70 and 66 before a final round 75 saw him slide down the leaderboard, however he’s undoubtedly getting closer and perhaps a return to the scene of his maiden DP World Tour victory will see him push on once again. 3^rd and 4^th for SG Putting over those last two efforts is encouraging and more of the same could see him win back-to-back events at Steyn City. RESULT: T58

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My knee-jerk reaction with birdie-fests is to focus too heavily on putting stats which can often leave perfectly viable options like Daniel van Tonder off of my final team. How many times in the past have week seen a Sergio Garcia or a Lee Westwood get to super-low totals through an immaculate tee to green game, supported by an adequate rather than red-hot putting performance? Plenty is the answer.

Last year’s Strokes Gained statistics captured here at Steyn City also support the theory that a player of van Tonder’s ilk can contend around these parts. The leading 4 finishers each ranked inside the top 14 for SG Tee to Green, and if we ignore eventual winner Shaun Norris for one moment, then runner-up Dean Burmester topped the field for SG Off the Tee and the next two finishers ranked 3^rd and 5^th on that count.

Although largely off the boil since finishing 3^rd at the Joburg Open in late November, Danie (as he calls himself) has shown some progressive form of late as he looks to add a second DP World Tour title to his record and what would be a ninth Sunshine Tour title should it come in a co-sanctioned affair such as this. 57^th in Thailand, 56^th in India, 35^th in Kenya and 32^nd last week at St Francis Links have each shown improvement over the last effort in terms of SG Tee to Green performance, culminating in 8^th on that count last week, and he topped the SG Off the Tee charts in Eastern Cape last week into the bargain.

The 32 year-old’s breakthrough DP World Tour win holds some relevance for this week given that it was played at altitude in Kenya, and he’s since won the South African Open at the end of 2021 when it was hosted at the Sun City, another altitude track with dimensions similar to this week’s task.

Any significant improvement on last year’s 16^th place finish here at Steyn City could see the Soweto man challenging for an each-way place or better. RESULT: T32

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Finally I’ll take a chance on Nacho Elvira who may just be rounding into some form after a tough 6 months or so.

5 Missed Cuts from his final 7 events of 2022 didn’t improve massively with the turn of the new year, with a tailed of 67^th in Abu Dhabi being followed by another 4 weekends off, however perhaps the tide has finally turned for the Spaniard.

40^th at the Kenya Open, which again has altitude to factor in, saw the 36 year-old lead to halfway for the first time since his breakthrough win at the Cazoo Open back in 2021, and 23^rd last week in Eastern Cape also encourages given he was +5 for the tournament after 21 holes with another blank pay-cheque looming. 8 birdies in his final 15 holes of the second round, which was finished on Saturday morning, was a strong recovery though, and although he trod water from there, that effort was noteworthy nevertheless.

In addition to that win at Celtic Manor a couple of summers ago, Nacho also has 4 wins on the Challenge Tour, 3 of which have come at 21-under or deeper, which offers encouragement that low-scoring events like this aren’t an issue.

6^th at Pecanwood and 9^th at Crans-sur-Sierre last year suggests that making the necessary adjustments for altitude isn’t an issue either for the Madrid man, and a big improvement on last year’s 48^th place finish here – which came immediately after that Pecanwood effort – isn’t out of the question here. RESULT: MC

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