The big prize at Durban Country Club this weekend is neither the R900 000 first prize, nor the second-oldest Open title in the game. For more than half the field it is the chance to win an exemption on to the full European Tour for, effectively, two years.
The South African Airways Open comes so early in the year that any non-exempt winner is, to all intents and purposes, granted the freedom of the European Tour up until the beginning of the 2007 season.
With that in mind there were no fewer than 288 players grinding it out in the 36-hole qualifier on Monday and Tuesday, with just 16 spots in the main event available. If history repeats itself then it is worth remembering that the last time the SAA Open was held at South Africa’s finest golf course, the winner came through pre-qualifying.
In 2002, it was local lad Tim Clark who defied the odds. Clark had already earned a US PGA Tour card and was at home in Umkomaas for the festive season. Representations were made to the Sunshine Tour for a sponsor’s exemption, but none were forthcoming and Clark had to be persuaded by friends and family to peg it up in pre-qualifying.
He thus took great satisfaction in winning the title and turned up to defend it at Erinvale in the Cape a year later still in combative mood. He said: ”It was kind of a weird feeling to turn up here and have a car parking space with my name on it, considering that last year they wouldn’t let me in the clubhouse”.
This year, 16 players came through pre-qualifying at three different venues. At Royal Durban, the course that sits inside Greyville racetrack, the winner was Scotsman Derek Crawford, a Sunshine Tour veteran who first made the trek from his summer home in Norway back in 1992.
Crawford now employs his South African caddy, Lucky Ntuli, all year round. When he’s not carrying the Scotsman’s bag, Ntuli works at Crawford’s driving range in Trondheim. But Monday was homecoming time for the caddy who learnt his trade at Royal and knows the direction that every blade of grass grows in.
Said Crawford: ”Inside the racetrack it’s hard to get your bearings because the rails look straight, but they’re not. The course follows the racetrack for the first four holes and Lucky called the wind direction perfectly. Then, when it came to approach shots he could tell me which direction the ball would bounce when it hit the green.
”Mind you, we were under pressure because Lucky had been 12 years at Royal before he hooked up with me. He’s a celebrity there, so when we qualified he took all the credit!”
Crawford deserved some of the credit himself, though, playing holes seven to 13 in the second round in seven under par.
Having duly qualified, Crawford enthused about the new-look Country Club layout.
He said: ”The changes are fantastic. They’ve made a good course into a great one. The 15th is a brand new hole and Dean Robertson [another Scot] calls it a dogleg par three because there’s a tree in the way of the tee shot.”