2015 Joburg Open Preview: Leaderboard
TWENTY TWO year old Melbourne golfer Todd Sinnott will have his first taste of professional golf outside Australia this week when the European Tour returns to South Africa.
Sinnott has been itching to join the pro ranks for a couple of years and playing with the likes of Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIllroy in Australia over the summer convinced him it was time to make the switch after a highly successful amateur career.
“That was an awesome and massive learning experience to see what these guys do up close. It helped me realise I was finally ready to go,” Sinnott said recently.
The big hitting youngster finished in the top 20 in his professional debut at the Oates Victorian Open in early February and might get a crash course in life on the road from some seasoned pro’s at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club this week.
Sinnott will join just one other Aussie in the field for what is the European Tours 10th event of the season, Q-School graduate Jason Scrivener.
Scrivener is himself a newbie, teeing it up in just his third event since earning his card last year.
The South African born West Australian finished mid field at last week’s Indian Open. He made his European Tour debut in the South African Open in January where he finished a very creditable T11.
With many of the tour’s leading lights already in America for a couple of big weeks on the US PGA Tour, the way is maybe open for a fresh face on the winner’s podium.
That face is highly likely to be South African, with defending champion George Coetzee no doubt spurring many of his fellow countrymen on.
The Joburg Open is the first of three ET events in this neck of the woods and also has the added incentive of being a qualifying event for the 144th British Open at St Andrews this year, with the leading three players who finish in the top ten and ties, who are not already exempt, qualifying.
Joburg Open TV Times
Live coverage on Fox Sports beginning Thursday 7.30 – 9.30pm; 11pm – 1am.