A point of order before we begin the South African swing. It is not the DP World Tour because the word 'world' better illustrates what the European Tour had become. It is the DP World Tour because the logistics company, owned by Dubai, is called DP World. If the company was called DP Jupiter, then we'd be heralding the start of the DP Jupiter Tour, despite no events so far scheduled on the gas giant. THE COMPANY IS LITERALLY CALLED DP WORLD. And it is now their tour.
Gladly, the European Tour lives on through its website, europeantour.com, which still has a European Tour logo, and a European Tour schedule. I like to think that this is the consequence of a tech support team with its priorities right, having last week introduced shot-by-shot data to the app. Speaking of the app, am I right to say that unless you download an update, it will remain as it is now, the cherubic Matt Fitzpatrick welcoming you aboard? Join me, comrades, in ignoring calls to update; to welcome in this new era, with Collin Morikawa as its acceptable face.
Right, to the Joburg Open, an event which used to be held across two courses at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Country Club, before coming to Randpark in 2017 and again taking advantage of two courses here. That was to ensure a bumper field made up of players from around the DP World, but with the Asian Tour no longer part of the sanctioning, we were back to just one as JB Hansen got the better of Wilco Nienaber in an exciting finish last November.
The course in question is Firethorn, a long-on-the-card par 71 made shorter by the fact that we're at altitude. It is not as easy as a glance at winning scores may suggest, kikuyu rough as problematic as ever, the second a par-four which plays as a five to the members and is devilishly difficult with one less shot to play with, and a demanding closing stretch strewn with hazards and trouble spots. Indeed the back-nine on the whole is particularly challenging, with the exception of the par-fives at 12 and 14.
We saw last year that a classy European Tour regular making the trip down has to be respected and Langasque, back to form lately, is certainly one of those. He's emerged from a poor spring and summer to really begin to find form this autumn, doing so just as he needed to in order to retain full status.
Going back to the Dutch Open in September, where he was 10th through 54 holes only to fall to 22nd, Langasque then made bright starts in the Dunhill Links and Open de Espana, led at halfway at Valderrama, and was again prominent in the Mallorca Golf Open before a quiet third round.
After a week off he finished 26th in Portugal, defying a slow start this time, and then spent all four rounds in the middle of the leaderboard as Hansen won in Dubai. There is absolutely no doubt that we need to be upgrading that performance, because scoring there at Jumeirah Golf Estates' Fire Course was far lower than he'd like and meant more quality ball-striking wasn't rewarded in the way it could be here.
Stone has course form figures of 7-MC-4, latterly when returning from a month away last year to finish strongly and confirm once more that he's so dangerous on home soil.
We saw that again earlier this year, when he dropped down to a Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour collaboration to cruelly stamp his class on the Limpopo Championship, winning a play-off against three of his compatriots who would've been within their rights to ask why he'd turned up at all.
Stone hasn't done a great deal since, but he started to hit the ball well during the autumn, notably so when 12th in the Czech Masters, and since then has only missed cuts because of his putter. When that's behaved, such as at Wentworth, he's had no issues making the weekend, and this of course is a sharp drop in grade.
It's almost a decade now since he won an amateur title here and Lombard has since proven really comfortable on the familiar terrain of Firethorn, finishing 15th in 2018, missing the cut by a shot in the 2020 SA Open, and then last November sitting fifth at halfway and again finishing 15th in what was a better tournament.
Crucially, his form had been poor in the run-up to both of these top-20 finishes, reading MC-MC-MC-MC-53-65-MC as he struggled with a rib injury last time and MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-67-MC-67-MC on the European Tour three years ago.
Last time out, Fisher doubled his second hole in the AVIV Dubai Championship, immediately putting him on the back foot as the lead stretched to nine-under. From there he played solid golf, shooting a three-under 69 in round two which saw him fail in his last attempt to keep hold of his full playing rights.
Fisher now finds himself using a career money exemption, similar to Nick Watney who started the new PGA Tour season finishing 30th in California and then runner-up in the Sanderson Farms. Watney described it as 'an amazing lifeline' and there's an element of last-chance saloon that may in part help explain why he found it within himself to roll back the years.
The pick of the 2021 Challenge Tour graduates are priced up at 40 and 50/1 this week, yet the standout performer from 2020 is out with the washing. A year of course is a long time, but Lieser played on the Challenge Tour a couple of months ago, finishing 12th having led at halfway.
That suggests to me that were he to have played a full campaign at that level, he'd probably have graduated again with little fuss, and that we therefore ought to take him a little more seriously despite the slightly madcap methods he employs.
This capable left-hander looks to have suffered a dip in form but back-to-back missed cuts both came by a stroke or two, and before that he'd made six in succession, catching the eye with strong starts in England, Switzerland and Spain.
His form here is also potentially misleading, as while missing the cut in the 2020 SA Open, he in fact shot a three-under 68 at Firethorn only to struggle at Bushwillow. His sole round here included seven birdies despite playing the par-fives in level and offered plenty of promise.
Eighth in Mauritius previously and having shown promise in Kenya, his form in Africa is better than it first appears and he's a player I'm quite fond of, one whose best form tends to come courtesy of strong approach play and good putting. That's the Hansen formula and Sciot-Siegrist, who should welcome tougher conditions, can go well.
Posted at 2030 GMT on 22/11/21
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