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SA team for World Amateur Champs named
The South African Golf Association (Saga) on Monday announced the SA amateur team that will represent South Africa in the biennial World Amateur Team Championships.
The team members are Dylan Frittelli, Dean O'Riley and JG Claassen.
The World Amateur Team Championships will be played at the Olivos and Buenos Aires Golf Clubs outside the capital city of Argentina from October 28 to 31.
Seventy countries are expected to enter the men's competition known as the Eisenhower Trophy.
The team manager is Colin Burger, who is also Saga's senior vice- president, and he will be supported by Andre Pieterse, Saga's second vice-president.
The non-travelling reserve is Ryan Dreyer from Central Gauteng.
"We feel this is the strongest team available to us at present," said Enver Hassen, president of Saga.
"Frittelli and O'Reilly are the two players we feel are in the best form."
Dylan Frittelli is studying at the University of Texas on a golf scholarship. The 20-year-old amateur golfer is from Pretoria and is a member of the Irene Golf Club.
"He is currently ranked 23rd on the US Collegiate Golf Circuit. He is the only member of the team that played in the 2008 Eisenhower Trophy, which was held in Australia," added Hassen.
Dean O'Riley, also a 20-year-old, has played steadily through the year to become the number one ranked amateur in South Africa.
O'Riley who plays his golf at Benoni Lake Club, lost in the semifinals in both the South African Amateur and Western Province matchplay championships.
Other than an impressive victory in the North West Open, 19- year-old JG Claassen, from Orkney Golf Club in the North West Province, has had a quiet year by his standards. By contrast in 2009, he won ten tournaments.
Losing in the finals of the Western Province Match Play earlier this year was his next best performance. He is currently ranked third on the Saga player rankings.
South Africa have yet to win the Eisenhower Trophy, the best
ever finish was second, recorded in 1980 at Pinehurst Country Club
in North Carolina in the USA.
