Justin Rose will take advantage
of his fine performance at the Alfred Dunhill Championship last
week by accepting a sponsor's invitation to this week's Mercedes-Benz
South Africa Open in East London.
However the 20-year-old
will be denied the opportunity to go head-to-head with young rival
Adam Scott after the Australian withdrew with an injury.
The European Tour is still
talking about the climax of last week's tournament, when Scott recorded
his maiden win with a one shot victory over Rose at South Africa's
Houghton Golf Club.
However a recurrence of
a knee injury has prevented Scott from following up that victory
at the windswept coastal course.
Nevertheless the field
for the $1 million event remains attractive. Defending champion
Mathias Gronberg will have to fend off the challenge of, among others,
Darren Clarke and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn. For Bjorn, who finished
fifth on the European Tour Order of Merit in 2000, it will be his
first event since undergoing foot surgery towards the end of last
year.
Rose's inclusion is a controversial
one. Under Southern Africa Tour regulations Rose should have had
to pre-qualify despite his second place finish at Houghton, but
his performance last week so impressed Louis Martin, chief executive
of the Southern Africa Tour, that he asked Cape professional Shane
Howe to give up a sponsor's invitation to the Open.
After lengthy discussions
with Martin, Howe accepted he would have to pre-qualify which he
failed to do.
"This is a very magnanimous
gesture and one Shane Howe took in the interest of golf in South
Africa," Martin told Reuters.
"I feel strongly that if
a player finished second in the Alfred Dunhill Championship, he
should be exempt for the SA Open. If I didn't do this I would have
been a hypocrite," said Howe.
