Volvo Golf Champions winner Branden Grace: List of accolades
South African Branden Grace is currently riding on the high-tide of his career after landing two consecutive titles on the European Tour and will now be hoping to translate his home success to other venues of the tour.
Grace, a 23-year-old Pretoria native, recently won his tour card through the qualifying round and started off his 2012 bid with a stellar victory at the Joburg Open, also his maiden victory on the European Tour.
Bolstered by the early gain, he went over to clinch another title last week, the Volvo Golf Champions, comprising of a field of accomplished veterans and renowned players.
He took over the grizzled countrymen Retief Goosen and Ernie Els on the first Playoff hole, after the trio managed to finish 12-under, 280 on the aggregate.
Consecutive victories have now catapulted Grace into the top-100 on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) in a matter of weeks. He started off his season poised at 258th and has also surged to the top of the Race to Dubai Money List.
This, however, is not the end of the long list of accolades Grace has managed to bag.
The young prodigy won his second event on the European Tour in his 51st start and has earned a mammoth €570,000 in two week’s time to surge to the top of Race to Dubai points table.
He started off the season at 258th on OWGR and moved to 164th after his victory at Joburg Open and his recent victory successfully lifted him into the top-100 this week.
He is the first player who has clinched consecutive victories on the tour after Sergio Garcia’s consecutive victories last year, when the Spaniard managed to break his winless streak. Garcia, who had not won a single title for considerable years, won the
Castelló Masters and Andalucia Masters in a row.
Grace has also become the first player to win two events right after the qualifying school after Johan Edfors who went over the win three events The TCL Classic, British Masters and Scottish Open.
Grace marks just another precedent of the recent upsurge in South African golf which kicked off with Charl Schwartzel’s glorious victory at the Masters last year.
The sturdy South Africans have won five of the last seven including Garth Mulroy (2011 Alfred Dunhill Championship - Nov 11), Hennie Otto (2011 South African Open Championship - Nov 11), Louis Oosthuizen (2012 Africa Open) and Branden Grace (2012 Joburg
Open and 2012 Volvo Golf Champions), and have come out as one of the formidable threats on the tour.
Grace played most of his professional golf on the Sunshine Tour after he turned professional in the year 2007, one of the reasons he has an impeccable command on the home turf. He won his first Sunshine Tour event in November 2010, the Coca-Cola Charity
Championship.
The young player has now qualified for the 2012 WGC - Bridgestone Invitational, WGC - HSBC Champions and 2013 Volvo Golf Champions and has also won a tour card until the end of 2014.
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