Schwartzel longs for soggy Joburg Open

Long hitting South African golfer Charl Schwartzel believes soggy conditions at the Joburg Open this week could bring him back-to-back European Tour triumphs.

The 25-year-old native of Vereeniging south of Johannesburg won the Africa Open last weekend on a bone-hard East London Golf Club course as drought grips the eastern Cape.

But the South African financial capital has experienced heavy downpours for several weeks, leaving the west and east courses at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club saturated ahead of the first round Thursday.

This is the last of four European Tour tournaments in this country and one of just three on the 2010 Road-to-Dubai circuit that is staged on two or more courses with the Singapore Open and Alfred Dunhill Links the others.

And while the east course is particularly testing with the 10th and 11th holes among the longest successive par fours in the world, the challenge holds no fears for Schwartzel.

“I do not think playing a longer course will do me any harm because I am a bit longer off the tee than most of my rivals,” said the four-time European Tour winner.

Ranked 51 in the world, Schwartzel said the unusally heavy rainfall meant there was likely to be little run on the ball and this would favour those who can hit it far and accurately.

His Africa Open success was the first by a South African in the new season after Spaniard Pablo Martin won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek and Scot Richie Ramsay the South African Open at Pearl Valley.

Schwartzel was runner-up to Martin and ended hine strokes behind Ramsay and after a festive season break in the South African bush he wants to win more than one European Tour title in a season for the first time.

The other triumphs came in the 2005 Alfred Dunhill Championship and, showing a fondness for Spanish courses, the 2007 national champioship in that country and the Madrid Masters the following year.

Among other South Africans capable of challenging for first prize in the 1.3 million euro tournament are two-time European Tour winner Richard Sterne and Thomas Aiken, runner-up to Schwartzel in East London.

JOHANNESBURG, AFP