Two interesting events, two interesting winners.

At the Royal Sydney Golf Club, Tim Clark joined legends Gary Player and Bobby Locke as the only South African winners of one of golf’s most time-honored titles, the Australian Open, reeling off an impressive nine Sunday birdies en route to a clinching 67. Of course, rudimentary math tells us that some black numbers also appeared on Clark’s final round card, primarily in the form of a double-bogey, bogey sequence at the 13th and 14th that threatened to snatch potential victory from his grasp. But two late birdies proved enough to force sudden death with homestanding Matthew Goggin, wherein Clark claimed the title on the first extra hole by getting up and down from a greenside bunker, while Goggin (who also finished second at last week’s Australian PGA) missed a six-footer to tie. End of story – though not, perhaps, without mentioning New Zealand’s David Smail, who stood three up with four to play, double-bogeyed the 15th and 16th and ultimately finished one out of the playoff.

Following his triumph, Clark (now the world’s 28th–ranked player) added a few choice words to the effect that the Australian fans made him feel more welcome than do those in his native South Africa – a point underlined by his very presence in Sydney while a fair number of his countrymen were home playing in the E Tour co-sponsored Alfred Dunhill Championship. Clark is returning to the Cape for this week’s South African Open, however, and it will be interesting to see how warmly –or otherwise – he is received.

Meanwhile, at that same Alfred Dunhill Championship, 27-year-old South African Richard Sterne claimed his fourth career European Tour title (along with two separate Sunshine Tour victories), carding four straight sub-70 rounds en route to a 271 aggregate, and a one-shot victory over Sweden’s Johan Edfors and England’s Robert Rock. Sterne clinched the title with a par at the par-5 72nd, a routine accomplishment we might assume – save for the fact that he’d carded an eight and a seven respectively over the same hole in rounds two and three. The victory clinched the 2008 South African Order of Merit for Sterne – also not too surprising until we notice that he did so in only four Sunshine Tour events. Equally interestingly, Sterne finished an uninspiring 75th in the 2008 E Tour Order of Merit, only thrice cracking the top 20 in 22 official starts. The three top 20s? All three of last winter’s stops on the Tour’s South African swing (including the Joburg Open, which he won).

Clearly, Sterne knows how to capitalize on a home field advantage.

His task this week, however, will be somewhat greater as he joins Cark and fellow countrymen Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini, as well as England’s Justin Rose and Lee Westwood, and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke in pursuit of the South African Open – another ancient and venerable national championship that goes largely overlooked in North America. Not surprisingly, South Africa’s two greatest golfers, Bobby Locke and Gary Player, have dominated this event, with Locke capturing the title nine times (including a war-interrupted five straight from 1937-1946) and Player an incomparable 13, including victories in four separate decades. Less recalled today, however, are the eight victories (ranging from 1925-1952) claimed by the nation’s first truly great international golfer, Sid Brews, one of the more underrated players in the game’s history. Among contemporary competitors, Ernie Els’ four victories reigns supreme, while such internationally prominent South Africans as Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman and David Frost, plus Zimbabwe’s Mark McNulty, have all claimed the title twice.

One more notable fact: whereas last week’s Australian Open boasts a long and illustrious roster of foreign champions, the South African title has remained largely a closed shop. Indeed, not until Englishman Tommy Horton’s triumph in 1970 did a foreigner claim the title, and only six men not from South Africa (or neighboring Zimbabwe) have ever taken the Open title abroad with them. Co-sanctioning by the European Tour figured to shift those percentages a bit, but in the event, little has changed: since co-sanctioning began in 1997, only Fiji’s Vijay Singh (1997) and Sweden’s Mathias Gronberg have successfully invaded.

Almost as an aside, the Asian Tour completes its season with this week’s Volvo Masters of Asia in Bangkok, a prestige event on the Asian schedule but one boasting precious few players of genuine international repute.

All eyes on the Cape...