Branden Grace eyeing a Volvo Hat-Trick at Volvo World Match Play Championship next month
If anyone can suffice the phrase of “taking the tour by storm” South African Branden Grace has done exactly that.
Making it into the mainstream European Tour through the Qualifying rounds last year, Grace has gone over to win no fewer than three titles in his maiden year and is now hoping to bag his fourth European Tour and third Volvo title next month at Finca Cortesin,
Spain.
The 23-year-old Pretoria native clinched his first European Tour title earlier in January, the Joburg Open and carded his second title, the Volvo Golf Champions, defeating two of the most celebrated South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
He carded his third European Tour title last week when he took over the grizzled Nicolas Colsaerts in the Volvo China Open and is now contemplating a Volvo Hat-Trick at the Volvo World Match Play Championship scheduled from May 17-20.
Grace said, “The two Volvo titles are huge and then the Joburg Open will always be very special as the first one in my career. Now I just have to go back to Europe and win the third Volvo title.”
Grace is currently stationed at number four on the Race to Dubai points table and holds a strong chance of making it into the Ryder Cup team in October this year.
Managing a successful Challenge Tour season in the previous season, Grace decided to try his luck at the mainstream European Tour and went through the Qualifying rounds at the last stage.
He won the star-studded Volvo China Open to surge to an unprecedented stardom he never experienced before.
He said after his victory in Tianjin, “I thought my first win was around the corner [this season]. To have three before May is literally unbelievable, but I’ve been playing well so I’ve been feeling like I can win and I’ve been giving myself opportunities”.
Grace is now the third player in the European Tour history who had gone over to win three titles in a single season.
Late Seve Ballesteros did it thrice between 1977 and 1980 and Sandy Lyle who managed to achieve the accolade in 1979.
Grace will be facing some of the top-ranked players in the world in the Knock-out format of the sport.
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