European Senior Tour's SA debut
10 March 2010
Ryder Cup captains Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam, and 18-time major and senior major champion Gary Player, will headline an impressive field when the European Senior Tour visits South Africa for the first time for the inaugural Berenberg Bank Masters from 26 to 28 March.
The top two finishers on the 2009 Senior Tour Order of Merit will be joined at The Links at Fancourt by Englishman Carl Mason, the leading Senior Tour career money winner, who finished third in the money list last year.
The full top 10 from last year's Senior Tour Order of Merit will feature in the €500 000 event, including five-time European Tour winner Mike Harwood, who captured his first Senior Tour title in the final event of the 2009 season. That victory in the OKI Castellün Senior Tour Championship helped him land the Rookie of the Year Award.
Eleven winners
In total there will be 11 winners from the 2009 season, with Glenn Ralph, Peter Mitchell, Tony Johnstone, South African pair John Bland and Bertus Smit, Mike Cunning and Delroy Cambridge joining the aforementioned quartet, as well Kevin Spurgeon, who won the 2010 season opening event in Mauritius.
They will be joined by Italy's most decorated golfer Costantino Rocca – one of 11 former Ryder Cup players in the field - and the most successful Senior Tour player of all time, Tommy Horton.
Home favourite Bland, who is attached to Fancourt, and Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Open winner Smit will lead a strong South African challenge, alongside Player himself, who designed the spectacular course in George.
Fellow South Africans Simon Hobday, a two-time European Tour champion and winner of the 1994 US Senior Open, and Hugh Baiocchi, winner of seven time European Tour titles, will also tee it up along with Jeff Hawkes, Gavan Levenson, Bobby Lincoln and Chris Williams.
'Delighted'
Andy Stubbs, managing director of the European Senior Tour, said: "We are delighted to have assembled such a strong field for our first visit to South Africa, and we hope that spectators in the Garden Route will come out en masse to watch some of the greats in action."
Hans-Walter Peters, managing partner of Berenberg Bank, said: "It is a great honour for us to be the presenting sponsor of the first Senior Tour event in South Africa. We are very happy that such a great number of fantastic golfers have taken up our invitation to play in the Berenberg Bank Masters at Fancourt."
Admission to the Berenberg Bank Masters over the spectacular Links at Fancourt will be free, providing golf fans in the Garden Route with a fantastic opportunity to see the leading European Senior Tour players in action.
SAinfo reporter
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