It seems absurd that this should be so, but it’s been a while since Kyle de Beer has been thought in a preview of as a contender for a Sunshine Tour title. This week’s Hyundai Open at Ebotse Links changes that.

While he missed the cut in the tour’s last tournament, the Blu Label Unlimited Challenge, the modified stableford format makes using that as a form guide is perhaps futile. Look instead at the two tournaments before that: He was joint runner-up in the Limpopo Championship and was in a share of ninth in the Fortress Championship.

Those were his second and third top-10 finishes of the season, and both came on challenging courses at Euphoria and Glendower. So the challenges presented by Ebotse should excite him, rather than intimidate him.

And, with form and fit on his side, it seems that he should quite conceivably be heading for his first Sunshine Tour title sooner rather than later. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be this week.

Of course, he is up against some formidable competition, with no fewer than 23 recent winners (over the last two years) in the field, including Daniel van Tonder who is just back from his share of third in the HotelPlanner Tour’s Rolex Grand Final in Mallorca, and Ryan van Velzen, who is back on home soil after a tough season on the DP World Tour.

Also, with the likes of Nikhil Rama and Altin van der Merwe searching for their first wins as earnestly as De Beer is, the level of opposition will be as tough as it always is on the Sunshine Tour.

For De Beer, on his third season on the tour, the chance to add that first title to his resume is a good one. He seems better than his current 17th place on the Order of Merit indicates, even though that’s the best position he’s held on the list so far in his career.

And he certainly has the ability to reproduce some the grit of a storied amateur career.