DID YOU KNOW? – SA OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
• The SA Open Championship has a rich history and is the second oldest National Open Championship in the world, dating back to 1893, (that year it was played as an exhibition where it was first played in Port Elizabeth). Only The Open Championship, which started in 1860 is older.
• The tournament first became part of The European Tour International Schedule in 1997. DefendinG champion, Hennie Otto will try to become only the second player following Trevor Immelman (2003-04) to make a successful defence of the title, since the event was co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour.
• Branden Grace will aim to become the first South African to win five European Tour events in a single season. He and Ernie Els (2003) are the only South Africans to win four times in the same European Tour season. Should he win, the man from Pretoria would become only the sixth player in European Tour history to win five official events in the same season, following Sir Nick Faldo (1983), Seve Ballesteros (1986 and 1988), Colin Montgomerie (1999), Lee Westwood (2000) and Tiger Woods (2006).
• When Richie Ramsay defeated Shiv Kapur in a play-off in 2010 he became only the third European to win the SA Open, following Tommy Horton in 1970 and Mathias Grönberg in 2000.
• The 2010 US PGA Champion, Martin Kaymer will be making his debut in the SA Open Championship. This will also be his first European Tour event in South Africa.
• Since the SA Open Championship became part of The European Tour in 1997, South Africans have won the event 12 of the 16 times since being co-sanctioned. This represents their most number of victories in a single European Tour event.
