Championship field ready for St Francis Links test

As a big DP World Tour event comes to the Eastern Cape seaside village of St Francis Bay for the first time with this week’s SDC Championship, the main topics of discussion among the players are the impressive quality of the St Francis Links course, and Thursday’s wind forecast.

The Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour have brought an international golf tournament to this Jack Nicklaus signature course for the first time, and a course ranked fourth in SA has certainly caught the attention of the field. And so too the wind forecast for Thursday’s first round of gusts of up to 65km/h.

“It’s one of the best golf courses in the country,” young South African Casey Jarvis said during Tuesday’s pro-am. He knows this course well, having finished second in the 2022 SA PGA Championship here.

“It’s just a really good golf course, and a challenging one in the wind. It’s quite soft around the greens so doesn’t play like a true links, but the overall layout is good.”

Scotland’s Richie Ramsay was equally impressed after his first look at the course. “The landscape around here is beautiful and I’m really impressed with the course. It’s a gorgeous piece of property. You can see that if you’ve played this course before you will have an advantage. I’ve always loved coming down here to this part of the world.”

Ockie Strydom, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour this season, also has fond memories of the course where he finished second in a Sunshine Tour event in 2022.

“I’ve done well on this course in the past. I feel like this course owes me one and hopefully that’s this week. There are a lot of good players here, but we’ve all got the same job — to keep it low and under the wind.”

The wind can certainly turn this course into a proper test this week, and most of the field are already bracing themselves for the challenge it will bring.

“I’ve been watching the wind forecast, and especially the predictions for Thursday. You can definitely see the course has been built for a breeze and it’s no secret that this part of the country has wind that will flatten flagsticks. The wind will certainly change how this course plays. But I have to commend the greenkeeping staff because it’s in fantastic condition considering they’ve been in a long drought in this region,” said Brandon Stone.

“This is a great golf course, but it all depends on the conditions. I’m hoping for a bit of wind to test us all,” added Shaun Norris.