Cele targets Blue Label tournaments to salvage ‘tough season’

Johannesburg’s Lincoln Cele says while he knows that he’s out of the Altron Big Easy Tour’s Final due to his low rank on the Order of Merit, his objective now is to do well in the two remaining tournaments of this 10-event series.

The first of those is the Blue Label Development Tour’s one-day tournament which is being held at Wingate Park Country Club this Monday. Cele, a member of the Papwa Sewgolum Class, has played Wingate before and will count on that experience on Monday.

“My season has been tough; a mixed bag of everything,” said Cele ahead of his tee-off time in Pretoria.  “I have had good rounds and bad rounds, so I am looking forward to making it better with the one-day tournaments and this week presents me with that opportunity. The Big Easy season is over for me because we are now left with The Final and only the top 30 players are in that field. I missed out, so I have an opportunity here to salvage something out of it.”

Cele’s best finish this season was in a Blue Label Development Tour event, at Services Golf Club, where he finished ninth after a round of 70. Having played his fair share of these one-day events which the Sunshine Tour has put together to afford players more playing opportunities, Cele will be quietly confident in the Capital.

“At first, my approach to these events was a bit conservative,” admitted Cele, “but as we went on – and take the tournament at Services where I did well for an example – I just gave it a go and didn’t care if I shot an 80 or whatever. I ended up shooting a 70 there, so the approach now is to go for it and see where we end up. So, that has been the mentality now; to say let’s give it a go and see what happens.”

Like many of his peers, Cele appreciates the platform the Sunshine Tour and Blue Label created to increase playing opportunities while earning some money in the process.

“It’s massive,” he said, “because every athlete wants to compete frequently to keep sharp and that’s what Blue Label has done for us. We are very grateful.”

The Wingate Park tournament is the ninth in the series.

There were 10 tournaments in the series and all were played in Gauteng. There are no entry fees required from the participating players, ensuring more playing opportunities. The Blue Label Development Tour events carry a R50 000 purse for each of the 10 one-day tournaments while expanding playing opportunities for players to sharpen their skills further.