Rowe a fine advert for Big Easy Tour
by Ken Borland 25 November 2011, 14:23
Pre-qualifier Lyle Rowe's surge to the top of the SA Open leaderboard at Serengeti Golf Estate on Friday is a fine advert for the Sunshine Tour's secondary Big Easy Tour presented by Stonehage.
Rowe scorched around the course in six-under-par 66 for a nine-under halfway total of 135 and a one-stroke lead midway through the day from Steven O'Hara and Retief Goosen.
The Sunshine Tour introduced the Big Easy Tour this year for those golfers below the top tier, ranked 70 to 150 in the Order of Merit, who don't automatically qualify for the draw in the main events.
"The Big Easy Tour gives you the chance to play more, which helps you groove your game because you're not going weeks without playing. It's tournament play for us guys, which is the biggest thing in professional golf, you have to keep playing with your top peers and that obviously refines your game for the big stage, which this is," Rowe said after his eye-catching round.
A day of top-class ball-striking allowed Rowe to post six birdies and an eagle, offset by bogeys at the 13th and 16th holes, when his driver let him down.
A 24-year-old from Port Elizabeth, Rowe is comfortable in the wind, having won the Eastern Province Amateur Championship at the St Francis Links in 2008 and his confidence playing on the East Rand was boosted by a Big Easy Tour win just down the road at Benoni Country Club in August. That win and two other top-three finishes lifted him into a fifth-place finish in the final order of merit.
"I was feeling good, hitting the ball well. In fact, I've been hitting the ball well for a long time now," Rowe said.
"This course is like the St Francis Links, which is also a Jack Nicklaus design. It has the same feel, fairways, tee-boxes and sloped greens. It's a similar layout, using the contours of the land. But there's just much less wind up here.
"This game is just about confidence and I've maybe fed on catching Vaughn Groenewald at Benoni and then beating him in a playoff."
Despite being ranked just 59th on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit and 1 388 in the world, Rowe believes he is perfectly capable of winning South Africa's most prestigious title.
"I know the game is there to win this. You have to keep doing what you have to do - fairways, greens and roll a couple in.
"Just to be in contention I suppose is a learning curve, the pressure of playing in a European Tour event ... " Rowe said.
The Big Easy Tour is named in honour of Ernie Els, who is totally committed to the furthering of South African golfing talent, most notably through his foundation, which helps talented youngsters from families with limited resources.
"The Big Easy Tour is great and Stonehage have handled my own financial affairs for 20 years. South Africa is such a big part of my life and there's all the talent in the world here. I would love to keep getting that skill through, so South African golf can keep going, the youngsters just have to believe in themselves," Els said.