Johannesburg: South Africa has produced many great golfers over the years. Among them are Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
Who knows who the next major champion from this country will be, but don't be surprised if it is Charl Schwartzel. His achievements by the age of 20 have been massive.
He has won the 2004-05 Sunshine Tour order of merit by the proverbial mile. His earnings currently stand at R1 622 650 - a legacy of his having won the dunhill championship, as well as finishing joint second in the SA Airways Open and the Telkom PGA Championship last Sunday.
Up until last week, he also topped the European PGA Tour's order of merit. Schwartzel's decision to support his home tour rather than play in the Malaysian Open has seen him being overtaken by Niclas Fasth of Sweden.
Next week he will rejoin the European Tour for the Dubai Desert Classic, in which his competitors will include Els, but in the meantime he will get the chance to extend his domestic dominance in the R2 million season-ending Vodacom Tour Championship at the Country Club Johannesburg's Woodmead course from tomorrow.
"In my opinion, Charl's the best young player in the world right now," says former SA Open champion Denis Hutchinson.
"He has all the shots and - even at only 20 - is maturing nicely. When he started playing on tour, he was just 18 and a little impetuous. He'd go for broke with every shot. Now, although he's still a bold player, he is far more sensible when it comes to course management.
"He has already proved himself at the highest level, but I believe we can expect even greater things from him in the future," added Hutchinson, one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the game.
Schwartzel has restricted himself to only one practice round at Woodmead (in today's pro-am), preferring since Sunday to relax and regroup following the final-day drama in the PGA, where a hot back nine, including an eagle at the par-4 15th, saw him finish just one shot behind winner Warren Abery.
"I'm pleased with my game right now. I think I'm becoming more consistent," he said on Tuesday.
"People say I could have won at Woodhill if I hadn't hit my drive out of bounds at the third hole in the third round (which led to a double-bogey), but you can't think like that.
"This game has its ups and its downs, and you just have to accept that. I also three-putted the 10th in the final round which cost me."
Schwartzel will lose further ground on the European order of merit this week as the $7m World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play starting at Carlsbad, California, Wednesday is an official event on both the European and the PGA Tour.
But 2005 will still present him with many more opportunities to make further progress.
As things stand, he is already in the British Open and the Memorial and possibly also in the US PGA Championship and two WCG events. That is besides the weekly stopovers on the European Tour.
The Tour Championship, for the top 70 available players on the 2004-05 order of merit, offers a first prize of R317 000.
Besides Schwartzel and defending champion Andrew McLardy, the field will include the likes of Abery, Briton Neil Cheetham, Titch Moore, Jaco van Zyl, Nic Henning, Louis Oosthuizen and Richard Sterne.