Burmester leads Race to Investec Cup
With last week’s Eye of Africa PGA Championship complete, the final points in the 2016 Chase to the Investec Cup points have been earned, with Dean Burmester topping the list ahead of the Investec Cup finale which tees off at Millvale Private Retreat on March 9.
And while the top spot amongst the 16 players who will be fighting it out for the R10-million Bonus Pool has been settled, there is an anxious wait for the player who is number 17 on the list, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
The man who finished runner-up behind Brandon Stone in the BMW South African Open Championship must be rueing missed cuts in the Tshwane Open and last week’s tournament – he has finished the Chase to the Investec Cup on 1032 points, just 15 points behind Keith Horne who is the man in position of that coveted 16th position.
He will look back on those missed cuts and speculate that just a top-50 performance at either of those events would have been enough to keep him inside the top 16.
Instead, he has to endure an anxious wait until Thursday this week, when entries officially close, to find out whether the third-ranked Charl Schwartzel will be returning to South Africa to play in the event at Millvale.
The 2015/2016 ‘Chase to the Investec Cup’ season consisted of players earning points at Sunshine Tour tournaments, starting with the Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open last April and ending with the Eye of Africa PGA Championship. The top 16 players on the Chase to the Investec Cup Bonus Pool ranking after the PGA Championship have qualified for the season-ending Investec Cup.
Chase to the Investec Cup points
1. Dean Burmester 3001.92
2. Brandon Stone 1964.83
3. Charl Schwartzel 1948.00
4. Zander Lombard 1771.94
5. Justin Walters 1691.33
6. George Coetzee 1555.71
7. Jaco van Zyl 1450.56
8. Haydn Porteous 1301.50
9. Vaughn Groenewald 1226.59
10. Jean Hugo 1182.43
11. Ross McGowan 1146.59
12. Jacques Blaauw 1124.25
13. Anthony Michael 1100.00
14. Mark Williams 1084.28
15. Richard Sterne 1067.39
16. Keith Horne 1047.75
17. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 1032.47
Jacasport/Sunshine Tour