Eastern Cape (South Africa): India’s Shubhankar Sharma and Manu Gandas are back in action at the SDC Championship as the duo is set for the next two weeks in South Africa. The SDC Championship will be followed by the Jonsson Workwear Open as the Sunshine Tour hosts the fifth of the six-co-sanctioned events this year.
Sharma, who is among the Top 30 of the DP World Tour in 2022, was joined on the Tour by Gandas, who won six titles en route to winning the Order of Merit on the PGTI Indian Tour, to gain a card to Europe.
Gandas tees off early in the morning St Francis Links alongside Rupert Kaminski and Nick Bachem, while Sharma goes out with Roman Langasue and Shaun Norris in the afternoon.
Sharma was seventh in the season-opener at Abu Dhabi and then finished T-13 in the Hero Indian Open, while Gandas has made three cuts in five starts. Sharma has made his goal for the year clear as he has targeted a Top-10 finish in the Race to Dubai rankings to gain an entry to PGA Tour for 2024.
Last year, Daniel van Tonder, Tristen Strydom and Wilco Nienaber have also benefited from a new exemption alliance between the South African Tour and World Tour as the leading three players, not otherwise exempt, from the 2022 Sunshine Tour rankings.
Ockie Strydom goes in search of a third DP World Tour title of the season and is among a strong home contingent in a field assembled from around the world.
Strydom claimed his breakthrough DP World Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his homeland in December and followed that with a second win in six starts at the Singapore Classic last month.
He arrives for the first of two back-to-back co-sanctioned events in South Africa ranked fifth in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex and top of the Luno Order of Merit on the Sunshine Tour.
With the weather forecast predicting gusts of up to 65km per hour for Thursday’s first round, it could be quite a challenge for all the players at the 7,192 par-72?course.
–IANS
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