AN in-form Nico van Rensburg could clinch this year’s Vodacom Series with a good performance in the R200000 Vodacom Series: Free State, which tees off at the Bloemfontein Golf Club on Thursday. The Free State tournament is the penultimate event of the six-tournament series. The golfer who has amassed the most amount of money in the six tournaments wins. Van Rensburg, winner of the Vodacom Series: Gauteng in April, currently heads the Series moneylist with R91300. His closest challenger is Andre Cruse, winner of the Mpumalanga leg, on R75874, while Ashley Roestoff is third with R68936. But with a first prize of R31400 on offer in Bloemfontein, even a top five finish could see van Rensburg clinch the title. “I’m pretty confident I can do it the way I’m playing at the moment,” said van Rensburg, who recently won the Volvo Masters of Malaysia on the Asian Tour. “The Bloemfontein course is very open, so I think about 14-under par will win. But it’s going to come down to a putting contest because of the lack of rough there.” Both Brett Liddle and James Loughnane, who have just made it through the first stage of the European Tour’s Qualifying School, will also be in the 72-man field. — MWP