South Africa’s Best At The PGA Championship

South African golf fans will have their work cut out as they track the progress of the Saffa contingent at the year’s second Major, writes Wade Pretorius.

As many as 11 South Africans are in the PGA Championship field this week, here we look at the five who have the best chances of finishing on the first page of the leaderboard.

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5. Oliver Bekker

Age: 27 

Playing in just his second Major, Bekker is in good form and his world ranking is starting to show it too. Now 84th in the world, he has churned out more than a handful of top 10s on the DP World Tour this year. Now he’s looking to convert to the big time. Ticks the boxes when it comes to driving distance and short game skills.

4. Louis Oosthuizen

King Louis’ 2022 has seemingly unravelled even before it got going. While always a threat at one of golf’s big four events, Oosthuizen hasn’t played since withdrawing at The Masters. In all, he’s made just six starts this season with his best performance coming at his first event.

He will need to lean on his excellence around the greens if he is to fare well this season. The numbers, in his limited play this season, show up well with a top 20 in both strokes gained off the tee and around the greens. The issue? His putter has gone from the top of the first page of the rankings last season down to 118th. Memories of a runner up finish last year will help him too.

3. Justin Harding

Hasn’t played a tremendous amount but the man they call “Hack” has a strong record going back to the third quarter of last year. Harding, like most South Africans, is strong out of the bunkers and is ranked inside the top 10 for putts per round on the DP World Tour. With ten Majors under his belt and a top 20 in last year’s Open Championship, the time could be now for another good performance when it matters most.

2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout

Like the player tipped below, he was outstanding at the Byron Nelson and while not a long hitter, there are expectations that Bezuidenhout will turn into a strong South African contender at the Majors. Sneaky good numbers if you look at his record this season as he ranks inside the top 60 on the PGA TOUR for strokes gained around the green, putting, tee to green and scoring. He made the cut at the Masters and has missed just one cut in 2022.

1. Charl Schwartzel

Continues to ride the wave of good form after his Masters performance. Schwartzel produced a superb showing last week at the Byron Nelson where he accumulated four rounds in the 60s en route to solo eighth. His numbers may not make for particularly good reading but there’s reason to believe that he’s over his worst this season. The links between playing well at Augusta and at Southern Hills are strong, so Charl could be the man to perform best for South Africa this week.

Rest of the South Africans in action: Branden Grace, Dean Burmester, Garrick Higgo, Daniel van Tonder, Shaun Norris and Erik van Rooyen.