Oliver

Bekker

The 37-year-old from South Africa shot 78-72 at Southern Hills to miss the cut in his tournament debut, but he’ll look to get back to his form prior to his first major start of the season, which includes 10 made cuts in 14 starts with seven top 10s. Prior to Southern Hills, Bekker was T-4 at the Soudal Open and solo second at the Catalunya Championship. He also finished on the podium at the Steyn City Championship, where he fired four subpar rounds to place T-3. Bekker is still chasing his first DP World Tour title and will make his first appearance at the Dutch Open.

The 37-year-old South African arrives with finishes of T11 or better in 10 of his last 14 worldwide starts. Those have primarily come on the DP World Tour so this week’s event will be a big jump in class for the World No. 84 golfer. Bekker has just one previous appearance in a major championship, missing the cut at the 2017 U.S. Open. If gamers want to take the stance that “good golf is good golf” and rely less on strength of field then Bekker is certainly an appealing name for weekly fantasy formats.

The 37-year-old Bekker, who started the day with a two-stroke lead (and a seven-shot advantage over Arnaus), carded an even-par 72 on Sunday at Catalunya Golf and Wellness, finishing regulation tied with Arnaus at 11-under 277. Arnaus and Becker made par on five trips down the 18th hole, but when they went to the 17th for the sixth hole of sudden death, Bekker made bogey to give Arnaus the title. Winner of seven Sunshine Tour events, Bekker is playing his first season on the DPWT with full privileges after graduating last year from the European Challenge Tour. He’s made eight cuts in 10 starts this season, with five other top 10s including a T-10 one week prior at the ISPS Handa Championship in Spain and a T-3 at the Steyn City Championship in March. Bekker is scheduled to head to England for this week’s Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett at The Belfry, where he’ll make his event debut.

The 37-year-old Bekker, who is still chasing his first DP World Tour title, carded a 5-under 67 on Sunday at The Club at Steyn City to finish at 19-under 269, tied with Germany’s Matty Schmid and six strokes behind winner and fellow South African Shaun Norris. After kicking off 2022 with a missed cut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Bekker got on a hot streak starting at the Ras al Khaimah Championship, where he finished T-9 followed by a T-9 at the Ras al Khaimah Classic. He posted a T-8 at the Magical Kenya Open and just missed a top 10 last week at the MyGolfLife Open, where he was T-11. Bekker earned his promotion to the DPWT for 2022 after finishing seventh on last year’s Road to Mallorca (Challenge Tour) rankings. He recorded two runner-up results and two third-place finishes on the Challenge Tour last year. Bekker will make his tournament debut this week at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

The 37-year-old South African had a career year in 2021, posting five podium finishes and five other top 10s, in 27 total events played. He split his time across the Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour. Going 16-for-20 on the Challenge Tour, he ended the year 7th in the Road to Mallorca rankings which was good enough to earn a DP World Tour card for the 2022 campaign. Meanwhile, he currently sits in third place on the Sunshine Tour Order or Merit. Bekker has never played more than 11 events in a single DP World Tour season so next year will be a good challenge for him as he tries to build on the momentum he found in 2021.

One clear at start of play after an excellent opening 66, the local South African nudged his score to 7-under with birdie-2 at 12 but then crashed to a double bogey-7 on the 13th before taking six swishes at the par-5 15th. He recovered his composure coming home by outpacing bogeys at 3 and 8 with birdies at 2, 4 and 7 but this wasn’t the day the 34-year-old had in mind after sounding so confident following Thursday afternoon’s 73. There are echoes of his performance here in 2012 when Bekker was T2 after an opening 67 but followed it with a Friday 77. Having said that, he remains T5 on the live leaderboard and just three off the pace so he can still play a big part over the final 36 holes.

The 34-year-old South African has never previously owned a first round lead on the European Tour so it is rare territory for him although he has quietly managed 11 top ten positions after 18 holes, the last three all in the Mauritius Open. His previous best was T2 in this event in 2012 although he will hope for a better 54 holes to follow his opening lap. Six years ago he shot 67-77-72–72 for T47 by the end of the week. He started on the back nine and ticked 11, 12, 13 and 14 for a superb start. His front nine witnessed ticks at 4, 6 and 8 with a bogey at the seventh. “Definitely a great afternoon on the golf course,” he said. “The wind died a little bit on us so I’m glad to have been able to take advantage of that. The greens are really firm but I drove it well so I was in fairway most of the time so I could control my ball. I think the changes on this golf course are good for my game.”

The 34-year-old South African from Pretoria is a seven-time winner on the local Sunshine Tour, banking three of those wins last year. He hasn’t quite lived up to those heights in 2018 but has cracked the top ten in four of his last five starts on home soil. He’s presenting a decent case so far but there’s an obvious downside, a rather poor record at Leopard Creek. This is his ninth appearance and he’s just 4-for-8 with a best of T29 in 2011 and nothing better than T47 since then. His short game looked sharp in Mauritius last time (4th Scrambling, 3rd Putting Average) so, with conditions expected to be dry and bouncy this week, perhaps those skills will take him higher up the Leopard Creek leaderboard this time.

That comprises T8 (2015) and T9 (2017) at Heritage GC and T18 at this week’s host course, Four Seasons GC, in 2016. The World No. 319 recently tested himself at the WGC-HSBC Champions but finished way down the field in T69 after a closing 83 but this is obviously much more in his comfort zone. Before the HSBC he was T26 in the Challenge Tour’s Foshan Open while the South African had top tens on the second tier and also his home Sunshine Tour in the summer. The good vibes he carries from those previous strong finishes in Mauritius are likely to kick in again so Bekker has definite sleeper appeal.

Bekker was originally down as the first player outside the cut-off positions but has a 09.00 tee-time alongside Italian Andrea Pavan and China’s Xinjun Zhang so he’s in. That’s due to his three-win season on last year’s Sunshine Tour Order of Merit. The South African has never made the top ten in the 65 European Tour starts dotted on his resume since 2008 so it looks highly unlikely that he can make any sort of real impact this week. At least he’ll be acclimatized having played back-to-back Challenge Tour events in China the last two weeks. In the first, he posted 59th at the Hainan Open while last Sunday he improved to T26 in the Foshan Open.