Poonan banking on Blue Label and Big Easy events for momentum

Member of the Papwa Sewgolum Class, Adriel Poonan, says he intends to use the Blue Developmental Tour’s one-day tournaments and the Altron Big Easy Tour to build momentum ahead of the Sunshine Tour’s summer swing.

Poonan, 28, is among the Sunshine Tour players who have made use of the increasing playing opportunities that the Sunshine Tour, through these two developmental tours, has created. While his season – on the Sunshine Tour, Altron Big Easy Tour and the Blue Label – has seen a mixed bag of results, Poonan is optimistic that he can make a late charge to see himself in the top 100 players by the time the co-sanctioned events come around.

Currently, Poonan lies 140^th on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit and knows the amount of work that needs to be put in to make the jump into the top 100.

“My season thus far has been full of ups and downs and my scoring shows that,” Poonan admitted ahead of this week’s Blue Label Developmental Tour’s one-day event at Reading Country Club. “A decent round coupled with a bad one but I am very optimistic that I will get the consistency going as we approach the summer.

“The Blue Label and Big Easy events are a great platform to keep competitive when we don’t have Sunshine Tour events. The competition is robust and I think it’s because these Tours are easier to play, from a logistics point of view; travelling and accommodation and those kinds of details. That helps to free you up and you start to play freely. The aim is to get the momentum going in these two tours so that by the time summer comes, I will be in decent form and I can compete at a high level.”

With the second event of the Blue Labe Tour teeing off at Reading on Tuesday, the Pretoria Golf Club player, Poonan, will have an opportunity to improve on the seventh-place finish he achieved in the first event of this series at Huddle Park.

“The one-day events are great but I aim to put together more than just one round of good golf,” he adds, “I need to be consistent. For example, I was in eighth position after the first round at SunBet Time Square but I still missed the cut because I didn’t follow up with another good round. I’m constantly trying to improve all aspects of my game, even as I know that I am doing some things correctly. I feel like it’s just a matter of time before everything comes together. I’m just glad we have The Blue Label and Big Easy to keep us on our feet.”

With 10 missed cuts in all his starts (Altron Big Easy Tour, Sunshine Tour and Blue Label), Poonan will want to accelerate his progress before it’s too late. He will have this chance at Reading.

Reading Country Club is hosting its first-ever Blue Label Tour event, having had the privilege of hosting an Altron Big Easy Tour tournament last season.