The SA Open in numbers

You are currently viewing The SA Open in numbers
  • Post published:January 11, 2017

5 – Years in a row, Gary Player won the tournament, raising the trophy in 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969.

10 – Countries represented on the winners’ list. The nine countries apart from South Africa are: England (Tommy Horton, Andy Sullivan), New Zealand (Bob Charles), United States (Charles Bolling, Fred Wadsworth), Zimbabwe (Tony Johnstone, Mark McNulty), Namibia (Trevor Dodds), Fiji (Vijay Singh), Sweden (Mathias Gronberg, Henrik Stenson), Scotland (Richie Ramsay) and Denmark (Morten Orum Madsen).

13 – It might be expected but South Africa’s greatest golfer, Gary Player, has won his home Open a record 13 times. Next in line have come Bobby Locke (9), Sid Brews (8) and George Fotheringham and Ernie Els with five each.

16_JAN11_CG_WEB4

17 – Age at which Bobby Locke won the first of his nine Opens, the youngest golfer to have done so.

25 – Strokes under par for the record (263) score. Ernie Els posted rounds of 65, 65, 67 and 66 to win by one shot ahead of countryman Retief Goosen in 2010.

39 – The highest position Brandon Stone had finished in the SA Open (as an amateur in 2011) before winning the trophy in 2016.

114 – Years since the birth (1903) of the first SA Open as the tournament as we know it. Before then (1893) it had been a series of exhibition matches between small groups of professionals in a challenge format. It is called the second oldest Open championship in the world, behind The Open Championship, and while there is some debate about that – if you consider that the US Open was the earlier Strokeplay event over 72 holes – in terms of pros competing against each other, the SA Open is older.

1909 – The year in which the tournament was played for the first time on a course with 18 grass greens: at Potchefstroom Golf Club.

15m – Total prize money at stake, in rands, in this year’s BMW SA Open. The winner receives 158 500 euros, which converts to around R2.3-million.