Home favourite Brandon Stone has his sights set on completing a South African "trilogy" by winning the Joburg Open.
The European Tour heads to Johannesburg this week for the first leg of the three tournament South African Swing - a run of co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour which includes next week's Alfred Dunhill Championship and the South African Open in early December.
Stone has tasted victory at both of the other tournaments in the past and would like to complete the set by winning a Joburg Open crown at Randpark Golf Club this week.
The 27-year-old, whose other European Tour title came at a Rolex Series event - the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open - in 2018, is looking to build on some promising performances in 2020.
Stone was in fine form immediately before the coronavirus hiatus in March, having been edged out by Sami Välimäki in a play-off at the Oman Open.
And he has gone on to make four more top 20 finishes since the season resumed.
"I had a few nice results before the old lockdown kicked in - obviously losing the play-off in Oman," said Stone.
"And then over the last few months now I’ve slowly been getting back to that form again, it feels like it's really coming together quite nicely now.
"The reward of having three tournaments in South Africa now is fantastic.
"This is the last leg of the trilogy of Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned tournaments that I’m fighting for now.
"I've got to try and chase down Haydn (Porteous) because he's the one between the two of us that's actually got this one.
"Obviously we'd love to add a victory this week but at the same time we've got three fantastic weeks to build on - three great courses leading up to the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai for us.
"Like I said, slowly found some progression so we'll see if we can build some momentum."
Stone's fellow South African Richard Sterne knows what it takes to win this event, having done so twice - in 2008 and 2013.
The Joburg Open is back on the schedule for the first time since the beginning of the 2018 Race to Dubai campaign in December 2017, while Sterne is also making his return this week, having not played since before lockdown due to a wrist operation.
He said: "I haven't played golf since the Dimension Data Pro-Am. It's the first 18 holes I'm getting in since then.
"I had an important wrist operation that I unfortunately needed to do.
"Touch wood it feels OK, it's still maybe a bit early but I wanted to try to come and play."
South African youngster Wilco Nienaber is excited to be back on home soil for the next three events.
The 20-year-old has played ten tournaments in Europe since the restart and is looking forward to teeing it up in South Africa.
He said: "I've not played much in South Africa unfortunately. It's really nice to have the next three in South Africa. I'm really looking forward to it."
