Stacy Bregman ready to defend Standard Bank Ladies Open title

The Sunshine Ladies Tour returns to the Western Cape this week with the Standard Bank Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club, and stalwart Stacy Bregman is eager to continue the steady improvement she has shown this season and mount a strong defence of her title. 

Bregman claimed her sixth Sunshine Tour title in April 2023 when she won the tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s West Course, beating Lee-Anne Pace in a playoff.

She began the 2024 campaign by missing the cut in the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt, but then finished tied-38th in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge at Lost City and tied-19th in last week’s Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge at Blue Valley Golf Estate, where she was in contention for the title before shooting 75 in the final round. 

The timing of this week’s R600,000 54-hole tournament couldn’t be better for Bregman as she feels her game is starting to peak ahead of Wednesday’s first round. 

“I feel like I’m starting to find the keys to my game again, even though I wasn’t playing that well at first. But I’ve felt it coming together and my results have been getting better,” Bregman said. 

“I’m in a good space. My game is trending in the right direction and I’m feeling good. I’ve been putting really well this year, but I could be a bit better off the tees. And you’ve got to be good off the tees at Royal Cape, because it’s quite tight and old-school.

“It’s about positioning yourself and putting well, but it gets really tricky, especially if its windy, if you’re not in the right positions.” 

The Sunshine Ladies Tour has seen strong competition this season with three different winners thus far — Kylie Henry, Tvesa Malik and Helen Kreuzer — and all three of them are in the field again this week. 

They will be joined by, among others, SA’s Kiera Floyd, Gabrielle Venter, Nicole Garcia, Cara Gorlei, Tandi McCallum, Nadia van der Westhuizen and Bregman.