European Tour South African Open leaderboard http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2019/tournamentid=2019004/leaderboard/index.html#/leaderboard
Gary Player is quick to tell one and all that he is the most travelled golfer of all time, logging some 15 million miles since he started travelling the world to play golf back in 1953. Pro golf was all about the USA back then, with the Open as the only significant championship in Europe, so great players like Gary and others from South Africa and Australia had to travel a long way and stay for a long time. Player would be away from home and his wife Vivienne for 9 months at a time.
Things have changed, golf is global now and travel is much more comfortable. Still, this new season International Team's globe trotting captain Ernie Els has flown from Melbourne, Australia up to Brisbane, across the Indonesian Sea and on for 12 1/2 hours to the island of Mauritius and this week the 4 1/2 hour flight to Johannesburg for the South African Open as the European Tour continues it's 2019 season.
He'll be hosting the Cup at this time next year at the Royal Melbourne GC under a new flag and hopefully some new players that can make this an event instead of a cake walk by the Americans.
Back on home soil this week where he is simply revered, he has opened his challenge with a -5 66 on the easier, shorter Bushwillow course. The other course being used this week is the Firethorn. His fellow countryman Louis Oosthuizen is the leader with a -9 62 on the Bushwillow.
Last week's winner in Mauritius, playing full of confidence, American Kurt Kitayama is going well at -8 64 on Firethorn.
There are 3 spots available from this week's play for players who haven't qualified at the Open in July, which is another great incentive to have a great week.
Bryan Angus
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