Play underway at Nedbank Challenge.. Aaron Cockerill's long journey ends in disappointment..

DP World Tour : Nedbank Challenge Leaderboard

Round 1 is well underway at this year's Nedbank Challenge, live scoring on my link above, and all the storylines as the week goes on here,,

What I do know and mentioned earlier is that Aaron Cockerill and his team decided to roll the dice and fly out to Joburg RSA then on to Sun City as the 1st alternative, with reports that a couple of players were uncertain due to niggling injuries if they could play..

Again what I do know is that the call never came, Aaron was left standing on the practice range. 

Now this is my speculation if he left from home from Winnipeg  consider the trip he made just in case assuming he used Air Canada. (this a Nov 9 example, not the exact flight)

Would you have taken on this journey, considering you just got home to see your family for the first time in weeks away..

Journey :

820am Depart YWG (Winnipeg Richardson International)  Travel time 2hrs 50mins

12.10pm Arrive YUL ( Montreal Pierre Trudeau International ) Delay 5hrs 40mins layover

6.00pm Depart  YUL travel time 7hrs 25min (overnight.. time change)

7.25am Arrive FRA (Frankfurt AM Main Airport) 14hr 35min layover 

10pm Depart  FRA  travel time 10hrs 35mins (overnight) 

9.35am Arrive  JNB  (O.R Tambo International Airport) 

Cost round trip Economy $3,253 CDN  

Nearly 50 hours, 3 different time zones, 3 different mornings...

Now you know why the big boys buy their own jets and hire companies to fly and maintain them.

That trip would take all of us at least 3 days to recover from, Aaron was required to grab his clubs, get booked in, begin to practice on a Gary Player course he may never have played in his trips to South Africa and wait....

Now with play under way and the DP World Tour Championship next on the schedule, he faces the same journey back home, and I haven't heard from him or his team what alternate plans he has made in that regard.

Another twist.. German Hurly Long went out off the 10th tee with a par, then made bogey, par, bogey, double, par, double double, bogey +9 45. 

He then went par, eagle, chip in birdie, par , bogey, par, par, triple bogey, bogey +2 38 for  +11 83   His projected ranking now 54 with the top 50 playing in the season ending Tour Championship and Race to Dubai finale.

He would likely have WD any other week but this is why nobody WD this week, with so much at stake.

Bryan Angus