South Africa has produced plenty of major winners over the years. Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Nick Price, Trevor Immelman, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen, and Charl Schwartzel all are from the dark continent and started their careers on the Sunshine Tour.
Another young South African has burst onto the golf world in 2012. Branden Grace is a rookie on the European Tour and just won his fourth event of the year on the European Tour at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The Dunhill Links is a celebrity pro-am event and is played over three historic Scottish links courses: Carnoustie, Kings Barns, and St. Andrews. Beating a quality field over these three difficult courses will get you instant credibility among golf fans.
Grace started the year by winning two tournaments on the Sunshine Tour, the Joburg Open and the Volvo Champions in January. He even beat Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a playoff with a birdie on the first playoff hole at the Volvo Champions. Even though both of these were more or less home events for Grace it gave notice to the golf world that he had some game.
Grace made a trip to the United States finishing T-35 in the WGC-Cadillac in March. He added his third European Tour title of the year at the Volvo China Open in April.
He came back to the U.S. and collected a T-25 at the Memorial and a T-51 at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club.
His win at he Dunhill Links moves Grace into No. 37 on the Official World Golf Rankings which opens up some very nice doors for next year. It also puts him into the third spot on the European Tour’s Race for Dubai behind Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose. Neither of whom have played very many events on the European Tour.
Since Grace has played predominantly in Europe the discussion for the European Player of the Year has to include him. He has played in 22 events with no missed cuts on the European Tour.
McIlroy played two events in the Middle East in January and February. He added the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship in England. The rest of his European events were co-sanctioned WGC events and the majors.
Rory’s four wins all have been in the U.S. They were quality wins the Honda, the PGA Championship, a major, and two FedEx Cup Playoff events, the Deutsche Bank and the BMW Championship.
The question becomes does the European Tour want to promote its most recognizable personality, Rory McIlroy or give the European Tour’s Player of the Year to the player that has toiled all year long in its own events?