Ruan Conradie, 25th on the 2020-21 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, is one of the entries in the IGT’s Chase to the Sunshine Tour #17 set to tee off at Services Golf Club on Monday.
Conradie, like other players on the Sunshine Tour, is taking the opportunity to get some tournament play in while that circuit has delayed its 2021 restart and the IGT is in full swing. Amongst those players is his brother Estiaan, who is 53rd on the Order of Merit, Heinrich Bruiners who is 51st and Rourke van der Spuy who is 39th.
They will be up against the in-form Michael Kok, fresh off his victory in the last tournament of the series at State Mines on January 20, and the man in second place on the rankings of the Chase to the Sunshine Tour. Kok is edging closer to South Africa’s top amateur Casey Jarvis, who is top of the list after his three victories on the circuit.
In third place on the list is Vaughn van Deventer, who finished third last week in the Road to the Sunshine Tour series event at Copperleaf, and who has also had a victory in the current season. So he too will be happy to lock horns with the likes of the Conradie brothers and the other Sunshine Tour players.
Also coming off a good week at Copperleaf, where he finished in a share of 12th, is also in the field, and he’s in fifth position on the Chase to the Sunshine Tour rankings. He will be looking for another good showing so he can get himself inside the top three on the list – it’s those who will get their Sunshine Tour playing privileges at the end of the 40-tournament series and the final which is set for December.
Ruan Conradie has a top-10 finish to his credit on the Sunshine Tour this season with his ninth-place finish in the Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge at the end of last October. Playing out of Wingate Park in Pretoria, he’ll be familiar with the Services layout and will pose a stiff challenge for the whole field.
