Hammond looking for second Modderfontein win in a row

Daniel Hammond struggled to a nine-under-par 144 victory over Mark Murless and Jason Viljoen who were a shot behind at last season’s leg of the Big Easy Tour (BET) Modderfontein event and will go into this week’s tournament seeking to emulate that success.

Apart from a not-so-solid start to this season on the Sunshine Tour, where he missed the cut at the 2017 Zimbabwe Open and failed to qualify for the Investec Royal Swazi Open, Hammond finished the last season very strongly on the BET where he won this event, finished fifth at the Kings Cup Big Easy Tour and ninth at the BET Championship after that.

However, Hammond who has 12 top-10 finishes on this tour will know composure and a consistent game of golf must be part of his game plan if he intends to walk away with a win here. Last season’s runners-up in this event, Murless and Viljoen are not in the field this time around, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a challenge to Hammond’s quest for successive wins at Modderfontein.

Another BET winner in Bryandrew Roelofsz – who won the BET and MENA Tour co-sanctioned South to East Challenge – is in the field and would also like win his second BET event in as many years. He followed that win last year with a 16^th place finish at Modderfontein but bounced back to finish second at the BET Championship.

Kyle Barker shared fifth spot with Bennie van der Merwe among others at Killarney Golf Club a fortnight ago and will go into this event full of confidence. Van der Merwe will also fancy his chances following a steady start to this season.

Anton Haig, Kenneth Dube and Teboho Sefatsa will be among those to watch as they aim to regain form in the early stages of the season.