The Steyn City Championship was only on the DP World Tour schedule for one year, but the venue that hosted it, The Club at Steyn City in Johannesburg, returns for the Jonsson Workwear Open.
One of the players to look out for this week’s will be the winner of that now-defunct event held in 2022. South African Shaun Norris held off the challenge of compatriot Dean Burmester to claim victory last year, and he will confident it’s a case of different tournament, same result here.
Not surprisingly, the field is littered with local talent, including Hennie Du Plessis, who was one of seven players dropped by LIV Golf at the start of the year. Another is DP World Tour Rookie of the Year Thriston Lawrence. The 26-year-old secured a special homecoming win in the South African Open last December and he will be hoping for similar success in his native land this week.
Another local player hoping to take advantage of familiar territory will be Ockie Strydom. He has won twice on the DP World Tour in recent months, first in December’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and most recently in the Singapore Classic last month. Strydom missed the cut in last week’s SDC Championship, so will be looking to put that disappointment behind him in the final DP World Tour event in his homeland until November.
Englishman Matthew Baldwin cruised to his maiden DP World Tour title in last week’s tournament, and he will be confident of taking that momentum into this week. Elsewhere, two Spaniards lead the field in the world rankings – World No.76 Adri Arnaus and World No.85 Adrian Otaegui. Arnaus will surely fancy his chances of victory this week given that relatively high ranking and his performance last week, where he finished runner-up.
As for Otaegui, he has yet to win again since cruising to a historic Andalucia Masters title last October, where he finished 19-under par at Valderrama. A runner-up finish in December’s Alfred Dunhill Championship aside, he’s struggled since, and will be looking to get firmly back on track this week.
Another player who will be confident of a strong performance is Englishman Jordan Smith. The World No.98 is the fourth-highest ranked in the field and will be looking for a similar performance to the one that saw him win the Portugal Masters in October.
Players will be competing for a $1.5m purse – the same figure as last week’s tournament. The winner will claim $255,000 with the runner-up earning $165,000.
Below is the prize money breakdown and…
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