MOSSEL BAY GOLF NEWS - Reigning Amateur champion Joe Long teed off from the 10th at Glendower Golf Club today, Monday 8 February, in the 2020 African Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
Long lined up alongside the leading lights of South African amateur golf, including GolfRSA No 1 and defending champion Martin Vorster of Mossel Bay, who is brimming with renewed confidence after returning to the winner’s circle last week with a four-shot victory in the SA Stroke Play at Randpark.
Vorster – currently 29th in the world amateur golf rankings and highest ranked amateur in the field – declared that the course was playing vastly different to the previous time the venue hosted the African Amateur here in 2018.
The 19-year-old Pinnacle Point golfer finished third in that edition.
“The ball is definitely not travelling as far and you get a lot of mud-balls,” he said. “You have to hit it in the right places. The greens are softer than last week and spinning quite a bit more with the wedges. And they are quicker. They are rolling nicely, so if you can get the lines and the speed right, the putts are going to drop.”
In early 2020, Long, the 23-year-old Landsdown golfer, enjoyed an exciting run on the GolfRSA South African Swing.
Long tied for fourth in the African Amateur at Leopard Creek and seventh in the SA Stroke Play and reached the semi-finals of the SA Amateur Championship at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington, where he lost to eventual champion Casey Jarvis.
Just a few months later, Long became the 125th Amateur Championship winner at Royal Birkdale after defeating countryman Joe Harvey 4 & 3 in the 36-hole final.
His last competitive starts were in December last year, when he played in the Sunshine and European Tour’s co-sanctioned Alfred Dunhill Championship and Joburg Open in December. The Englishman may be a bit of a long-shot, but Long is ready to deliver another strong performance on South African soil.
“I have been based down here since November last year in Somerset West with my girlfriend’s family,” he said. “I’ve worked hard on my game and I’ve done a lot of work, so I feel ready for the week ahead.”
Reigning Amateur champion Joe Long from England headlines this week’s field in the 2021 African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Glendower Golf Club. Photo: Ernest Blignault
And it is an important week for Long, who missed out on the opportunity to compete in the Jones Cup Invitational in the United States due to the travel restrictions.
With the win in Southport, he gained exemptions into The Open and the U.S Open this year and an invitation to play in the Masters in April. Effectively this week at Glendower signals the start of his preparation for Augusta.
“It’s my first time playing Glendower and I had two practice rounds and played another nine on Sunday,” Long said.
“I reckon it will be a challenging week for everyone, because the rain just hasn’t stopped. This is a proper championship layout and the rain is making it even tougher."
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