Andrew's SDC Open (HPT) Preview

A bit of looking back at the start of the HPT season, as this is where I started for this website, a year ago. I introduced myself and gave a primer for the Hotel Planner Tour, then gave a look at the course and three selections. This year, the primer sits in a different document, and please check that out, but we’re at the same course for this season’s opener. Let’s hope the picks do much better than they did last year.

The Tournament

As we’ve come to expect of these co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour, this is a South African dominated field, with plenty who’ll be HPT regulars unable to get a tee time. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that we’re seeing a watered down event, however; of the 26 players who’ve finished in the top five (and ties) in the four iterations of this event to date, 14 have been South African. That includes the 2023 edition in which the top four were all “local” players. It’d be a brave punter who looked at this year’s field and expected European domination.

Part of that is familiarity – we’re at the Zebula Golf Estate in Limpopo, at altitude and north of Johannesburg in rural South Africa. This is hot, rugged and a very long way from the golf that is played in the northern hemisphere. Add to the extreme altitude (well over 1,000m) temperatures in the low thirties (around 90 for our American friends) and you have the recipe for a very unwelcoming experience.

The course, too, is one that benefits from familiarity with conditions. Short (yes, it is over 7,400 yards but for a par-72 at altitude that isn’t much, and all four par fives are reachable, with some scorable par fours as well) and relatively straightforward – expect a winning score around -20 – the chief defenses are firm, fast greens and fairways and natural rough featuring waste areas and plenty of local flora (and probably fauna, the pictures from the course are always spectacular.) There’s been more rain than usual this year so it may be slightly softer, but it still won’t be easy. Breezes are set to be low throughout.

As well as looking for recent form and success in South Africa – and, more particularly, on the highveld and ideally at this course, which is now in the rotation for the fifth consecutive year* and will be familiar to a number of these players – I’m focusing here on quality iron play, accuracy from the tee, and an effective scrambling game. With the likes of Daniel van Tonder and Clement Sordet winning, to say nothing of success for a very young Casey Jarvis and  Deon Germishuys, it is clear what the formula for success is. As ever, good putting on this sort of surface will be a difference maker.

*I notice that the HPT website has for some reason limited the history it shows to just 2024 and 2025. I have no idea why that would be. To save you time in your research, the 2022 and 2023 pages are also shown here. This was a new event in 2022 but has had a single course host and all four years are worthy of attention.

The Selections

I’ve gone back and forth on including any Europeans in my shortlist, and there are certainly some quality names. Were Davis Bryant here I’d certainly be considering an American, but he takes his chances in Bahrain. Palmer Jackson did make some appeal, along with Adri Arnaus, former winner Clement Sordet and Marc Warren. I expected the prices to push me towards those names. In the end, however, I’m comfortable exploiting my love of the Sunshine Tour and picking three “local” players who I think will suit this particular challenge.

First and most confident of my selections is Deon Germishuys, who played well enough on this Tour to win a 2025 DPWT card that he failed to hang on to. This is just about the perfect terrain for him – on this year’s Sunshine Tour he ranks second for scrambling, third for driving accuracy and eighth for greens in regulation – and in his two starts in this event he’s finished third and second. For good measure he arrives in decent form, winning a big Sunshine Tour event (the Fitch and Leedes South African PGA) just four starts ago.

I’m also taking a nice price to back a hunch, which is that Jovan Rebula will improve on last year’s 21^st finish on the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Majorca rankings, and that he’ll be among the most motivated in the field this week to get a hot start. He was solid enough on his last start, finishing 25^th on the DPWT in Mauritius and he is well suited to this test of accuracy, with his success coming primarily on similarly tight and demanding tracks. He was 20^th here last year and can certainly step up on that performance. He’ll be one to watch throughout the South African swing.

Finally, I’m taking a name familiar to anyone who regularly bets on the Sunshine Tour, Nikhil Rama. Still just 24, he feels like he’s been the “nearly man” of the Tour for years already. He’s certainly highly regarded and seen as a tidy and accurate golfer and I think I’m far from being alone in my surprise that he hasn’t yet won as a professional. He is getting close, and it is notable that he was 12^th here last year while in less strong form, and 30^th the year before. He comes here on the back of an improving 17^th in the Cell C Challenge as he looks to return to his pre-Christmas form that saw three consecutive top-15 finishes. He’s overpriced to make a breakthrough and the native of Bryanstown is an altitude native and more than ready to take advantage of conditions.

• Deon Germishuys,22/1, 2pts win only, Bet365

• Jovan Rebula, 50/1, 1pt e/w, 1/5 odds 7 places, Fitzdares

• Nikhil Rama, 100/1, 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365