South African Women’s Open: Can South African contenders capitalise on home crowd support?
South African Women’s Open is scheduled for this July. Given the importance of the event, a number of local and international players have announced their availability for the tournament.
South Africa would be represented by fifteen women professionals and six top amateurs. This is a formidable line-up that will be a handful for any foreign player. But can the South African contingent take advantage of the home crowd and the home course?
The event will be played in Selborne Park Golf Club. This is a well known course that almost all local players are familiar with.
In addition, South Africans are great sports fans. This event would guarantee a large turnout of the fans from all over.
While the advantage of the home crowd is important in most sports, it is particularly important in golf. Given the level of player-crow interaction, a friendly home crowd always ensures that a player is comfortable in playing the course.
The home crowd advantage takes a different form in golf. Instead of stands filled with fans cheering their team and favourite players, a golf crowd has more access to the player. This means that a local player is likely get additional support from the fans.
This event is particularly important for South Africa. The event is returning after a break of two years. The two-year gap was particularly frustrating for the fans and players alike.
While the fate of the tournament was being decided by the Ladies European Tour officials, there were rumours that the event has been discontinued permanently.
With the return of the event after this much uncertainty, the local golf fans are ecstatic. The 2012 event would offer them a chance to see local and international players in action at one of the best known South African golf courses.
The home crowd could serve to be a negative point for the South African players. The support could mean that the players could take it easy in the initial rounds.
This lapse in concentration usually comes to haunt the player in the later rounds, when the opponents post a lead on the leaderboard.
South African players are very excited about the event. They are determined to keep the trophy, where they think it belongs.
South African star Lee-Anne Pace commented about this determination, saying, “And I can guarantee that we will do everything we can to make sure the trophy stays in South Africa”.
The home ground advantage may not be that great a factor in determining the final rankings of South African Women’s Open.
Many foreign players are popular in South Africa and it could be that many fans cheer for their favourite player instead for a local one.
Foreign players are equally excited about the event. Australian golfer Lindsey Wright is among them.
In a statement earlier, she said, “It’s exciting to play in a tournament that’s back on the international schedule after a long break, and with the calibre of South African golfers coming out on Tour now, it’s going to be fun”.
Both local and foreign players are eyeing the €260,000 prize money that has been announced. This amount is large enough to guarantee top performance from all the players.
The amateurs will particularly benefit from the experience, as they will face the pressure of an international event of this magnitude.
The home crowd will have the time of their life from the 13th to the 15th of July this year.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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