Africa Open moves to ‘swing’ with world calendar

East London’s premier golfing event, the Africa Open, has been moved to the beginning of March to create a South African Swing.

This is to enable South Africa’s and Asia’s top golfers to make the event, as many golfers chose the Asian Swing instead in previous years.

The event will now be held at the East London Golf Club from March  5-8, with the Pro-Am on March 4.

“The Sunshine Tour and European Tour have been planning the shift in all the Sunshine Tour events for a few years now and this year they were all moved to a later date to create a South African Swing,” said Africa Open media officer Lali Stander.

In previous years the Sunshine Tour hosted the Africa Open and Joburg Open at the start of the year. The players then left for the Arab Emirates for the Desert Swing, which included the Abu Dhabu Championship, the Qatar Masters and Dubai Desert Classic.

The golfers would then make their way back to SA for the Tshwane Open and many top players from SA and Europe didn’t think it was worth the effort.

To minimise travel and tough choices, the Sunshine Tour has grouped tournaments in certain places.

This year the Asian Tour moved their three events, which were previously scattered across two months, into three successive weeks following the Desert Swing.

This means the players move from Dubai to Asia for the Malaysian Open, Thailand Classic and Hero India Open.

After this comes the South African Swing of three co-sanctioned events, including the season finale.

“It was the logical solution to draw our top players and to make the trip back to South Africa worthwhile for the Europeans,” explained Stander.

So far 2013 champion Darren Fichardt is the only confirmed former champion who will be competing at the event, with last year’s winner Thomas Aiken yet to confirm his entry.

Richard Sterne, James Kingston, Jaco van Zyl and Jake Roos are a few of the talented South African golfers who will be leading the charge on the South African front.

Spain’s Pablo Martin Benavides, Argentina’s Estanislao Goya and Brazil’s African Open regular Adilson da Silva are some of the foreign talent who have confirmed entry to the event.

However, with the European Tour still to confirm their entry list and with entries still open until late this month, quite a few more well-known golfers may still enter the tournament.

There will be a qualifying round for the Africa Open at the Fish River Sun on March 3.