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Darren Fichardt - 6 points win @ 5-2 (general) The Copperleaf course was an unknown at the start of the week and other than hosting the longest hole in European Tour history, not much was known of it. Despite it's length, players such as David Howell and Soren Kjeldsen have managed to keep in the mix but it will surely all change on Payday when the longer drivers will come to the fore, along with the plethora of home players that usually make the final leaderboard look something of a Springbok benefit. Of the four leaders at -16, recent Africa Open victor, Darren Fichardt looks easily the most likely winner and it genuinely looks his to lose. Given his recent confidence on camera (on European Tour Weekly) it is frustrating not too have been with him from the outset but even as one who is reluctant to back favourites, 5-2 looks very favourable given the track suits so well and the relative lack of quality against him. There is little convincing argument for the likes of Charl Coetzee whilst Dawie Van Der Walt tends to have poor Sundays whether in contention or not. Mark Tullo is interesting, moreso for being followed on the Challenge Tour last season but he let punters down a few times back then and whilst current form is impressive (two top-10s in the last two South African events) he couldn't handle being in contention in the Africa Open and may suffer when the event comes down the stretch, especially if Fichardt continues his top-grade play. A regular winner on the Sunshine Tour, Fichardt has always shown decent enough form (for this grade) in main Tour events, examples being top-30s in the KLM, the Alfred Dunhill in Scotland and the Volvo Champions. He finally got his head in front again for the first time in over a year when defeating Jaco Van Zyl in the Africa Open where he had the event in his pocket before, by his own admission, losing his focus. As mentioned, his confidence this week was clear and that hardly surprising after a closing 7th in the Dimension Data (behind Van Zyl) on a course that didn't suit him as well as his main rival. The presence of the Sky cameras cannot be under-estimated and that experience will prove a huge advantage tomorrow. The current favourite has the best performance of the top half-dozen players over the closing holes thus far this week and you can't knock a player with 14 scrambles from 17 attempts and just 76 putts so far in three rounds. The final push for the 37-year-old comes from today's interview when he commented
"I'm just hitting the right shots at the right time and making crucial putts. If I do hit a bad shot I recover from it and that's what adds up to good scores, so I'm very happy with my game right now." Whilst still harbouring minor hopes for my sole ante-post bet Oliver Bekker, he has far too much to do although along with the other big hitters, he should find himself with a nice cheque come 3pm. None of these have the mindset or the current game to cope with an on-song Darren Fichardt however.
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