Charl Excels In Japan

Not many 20-year-old’s have the ability to travel half way round the world and then finish  3rd in an event of the standing of the Casio  World Open. Our own Charl Schwartzel is one of them and he picked up a considerable size cheque for his efforts in Japan. It was another opportunity for the South African to extend his golfing education and he did not waste it.

Charl was not alone in making an outstanding contribution to last weekend’s activities. Mark Foster finished 11th at the Volvo China Open, the first event of the 2005 season, while David Park and James Kingston were also in the top 25 in Shanghai.

Performance of the week, however, must have been Lee Westwood’s in Cape Town… and not just because of his second place in the Nelson Mandela charity event. He and Ian Poulter joined Ronan Keating’s backing group at the gala dinner and earned high praise from the Irish pop star. "Not bad at all," said Keating. "You never once sang out of tune." Replied Westwood: "It’s because of all the practice I’ve had doing karaoke with Chubby in Japan".

Westwood stayed on to take the place of Darren Clarke in this week’s Sun City event. John Grahame will not be on the bag because of a hernia operation so our man in South Africa, Mark Bell, will act as caddy. "He’d better not give me any wrong clubs or he might be looking for a new day job as well," said a smiling Westwood.