SA stars back for glory in SDC Championship

SA’s leading DP World Tour stars will return to local fairways at the end of February as the Eastern Cape is treated to a showcase of professional golf with the second edition of the SDC Championship at St Francis Links, co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour.

The $1.5m tournament has drawn a strong SA challenge including Zander Lombard, Thriston Lawrence, Darren Fichardt, Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis.

All five golfers are ranked in the top 50 on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai Rankings and will relish the opportunity to drive home their advantage on local fairways.

Lombard and Lawrence in particular were both pushing for a victory early in this year. Lombard returns to home fairways with recent finishes of tied second in the Bahrain Championship and tied sixth in the Dubai Invitational on the DP World Tour.

Lawrence has been in equally good form  in 2024 and came close to adding a fifth DP World Tour when he finished second in the Dubai Invitational. He also finished in a share of 14th place in the 2023 SDC Championship.

The SDC Championship forms a large part of Lawrence’s goals for  2024 as he looks to break into the top 50 on the official world golf ranking and secure himself a place in every Major in 2024, as well as push for a place in the Presidents Cup and SA’s Olympic golf team.

Jarvis, one of SA’s rising young stars on the DP World Tour, is looking forward to returning to a course he rates highly and where he finished second in the 2022 SA PGA Championship.

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