Another Major golf tournament has come and gone and South Africa is still looking for its next champion.
The last time a South African won a Major title was back in 2012 when Ernie Els triumphed at Royal Lytham and St Annes for his second Open Championship title.
While Aldrich Potgieter was in the conversation over the first two rounds of this last week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia, he faded over the final two rounds.
Casey Jarvis and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were the only other South Africans to make the halfway cut. Jayden Schaper and Garrick Higgo missed out.
Earnings
England’s Aaron Rai won the tournament on Sunday with a score of nine-under-par, three shots better off than Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley, who tied for second on six-under-par.
The 31-year-old Rai, from Wolverhampton in England, is ranked 44th in the world. He went into the tournament with a 150-1 chance of winning.
But with rounds of 70, 69, 67 and 65 he proved too good for the rest of the field in Philadelphia. He will bank $3.69 million for his efforts – around R62 million.
Potgieter, who finished the tournament tied 35th after rounds of 67, 70, 73 and 71, on a score of one-over-par, earned $78,806 (or R1.3 million).
Bezuidenhout, who finished on the same score as Potgieter, of one-over-par for the tournament following a good weekend and with rounds of 72, 72, 70 and 67, also earned R1.3 million.
Jarvis, who had rounds of 70, 72, 78 and 66, finished tied 65th after his stunning final round. His score of six-over-par was good enough for him to take home $26,900 (R450,000).
Players who missed the cut were awarded $4,300 – in Rand terms R72,000, the amounts gifted to Schaper and Higgo.
The year’s third Major, the US Open, takes place Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York between 18 and 21 June.
