With four first-time winners in the last five tournaments on the Sunshine Tour, Tyrone Mordt will be hoping to become the next rookie champion as he travels to Selborne Golf Estate for this week's Vodacom Business Origins of Golf Tour KwaZulu-Natal.
The penultimate tournament on this year's six-tournament Origins of Golf Tour tees off on Wednesday on what was once a dairy farm before becoming one of South Africa's premier golf estates.
With the final looming in October, this year's series has already been one of the most successful in many respects.
Brandon Pieters became only the fourth back-to-back winner since the series teed off in 2004.
And the Birdies for Kiddies campaign, in which South Africa's professionals contribute R500 to various children's charities for every birdie they make on the series, has already crossed the million rand mark, reaching R1 145 000.00 in donations.
But for Mordt in particular, real success will be defined by a victory at Selborne this week. The Johannesburg professional has finished third in two of his last three tournaments. And on both occasions he went into the final round as the leader.
"It's nice to be in a position to try and win. It's just a matter of getting comfortable in that situation," Mordt said after his most recent third-place finish.
Selborne, a short but tight layout, certainly has the potential to reward breakthrough winners such as Mordt.
In 2006 Rossouw Loubser became the oldest winner on the series when at the age of 44 he claimed the KwaZulu-Natal tournament, which was also his maiden victory and played a part in him being voted the Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year.
And in 2007, Pretoria professional George Coetzee used this tournament to mark his first victory as a professional.
Jean Hugo is the defending champion, while Vaughn Groenewald will be hoping he makes it through the qualifying round because he's always been a challenger in this event, once finishing second and leading going into the final round in the past few years. - Sapa