Golf's rising stars look to impress at Cape Town Open with 2000 vaccinated fans welcome

Cape Town will host the finest young stars from both the Sunshine Tour and Challenge Tour in this week's Cape Town Open - the second of seven co-sanctioned tournaments.

Last week's Dimension Data Pro-Am champion Alexander Knappe forms part of a strong field gathered at both Royal Cape Golf Club and Rondebosch Golf Club this week.

There are six former champions in the field this week, including defending champion JC Ritchie as well as Jaco Ahlers, Rhys Enoch, Jake Roos, Benjamin Follett-Smith and Anton Karlsson.

There are also a host of players hungry to go one better than their second-place finishes in Cape Town, including Jacques Blaauw, Zander Lombard, Ockie Strydom, Hennie Otto, Michael Hollick and Jaco van Zyl.

The tournament will be played on both the Royal Cape Golf Club and Rondebosch Golf Club courses. The first two rounds will be played on both golf courses, and the final two rounds will be played solely at Royal Cape Golf Club.

The Sunshine Tour confirmed that a maximum of 2 000 fully vaccinated spectators will be allowed to watch the action per day.

Knappe stated that there is a greater benefit for Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour players in terms of the opportunity created by this series of tournaments.

"These seven tournaments in Africa to start our season with are really important. We would usually start in May, and that is half a year off if we didn't have these tournaments with the Sunshine Tour," said Knappe.

"We're grateful to the Sunshine Tour for co-sanctioning these tournaments with the Challenge Tour and putting up such great tournaments. The golf courses here are always great and the tournaments are so well run.

"And most importantly, it keeps us playing because we have a long season with a great schedule