He’s finished runner-up four times since August last year, and Tristen Strydom must be close to the breakthrough win his aggressive approach so richly deserves when he tees it up on Thursday in the MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood.

Strydom’s finish last week left him just off the pace in Bloemfontein, so he brings form to a course at Pecanwood that will suit his game, and, with wide-open fairways and receptive greens, he knows that there will be plenty of other players having a go and going low.

With the tournament co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour, there are plenty of high-level players who will be out to make his task as difficult as possible, with many of South Africa’s regular European campaigners back home for the two-tournament stretch back in familiar territory.

So Strydom will have the likes of Zander Lombard, who also has good recent form to his name, with whom to contend. Not only that, proven recent European Tour winners like Dean Burmester, Thriston Lawrence, and Daniel van Tonder are in the field, and will be itching to show their paces in from of home crowds.

Add to that the prolific JC Ritchie, who has dominated on the Challenge Tour this year, and who would dearly love to win on the DP World Tour right away to seal his playing privileges on that circuit, and you have a potent mix to keep Strydom’s hands full.

From the DP World Tour side of the field, you have campaigners who, like Strydom are looking for that breakthrough: Poland’s Adrian Meronk springs immediately to mind, and the big man has recently looked likely to break through sooner rather than later. Scott Jamieson, the veteran Scot, has won in South Africa before, and is in good form. He can’t be counted out either.

There are also a host of South African campaigners on the Sunshine Tour, young and experienced both, who could grab the opportunity to get on to one of the world’s biggest tours that events like this so intriguingly offer.

For Strydom, a step up this week would vindicate lots of hard work and be the first step on what could be the first step on an international ride.