Schwartzel aiming for a hat-trick of home wins

Johannesburg-born Schwartzel won the title at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington by six shots in 2010.

He followed it up last year with four rounds in the 60s, including a second-round 61, to finish four strokes clear of compatriot Garth Mulroy.

Should Schwartzel make it a hat-trick he would become one of only six players, alongside Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods, to win the same European Tour event three years in a row, and the 27-year-old, told www.europeantour.com: “It is a golf course I’ve played many times as an amateur and junior and I grew up not too far away from Royal Johannesburg so it is always nice to play the course.

“I’ve always got a good feel when I go back there and always enjoy playing the Joburg Open.

“I get to play a tournament and stay at home in my own bed, which is very cool. It is great for South Africa to have three European Tour events at the start of the year, too.”

Leading the challenge will be fellow South African Retief Goosen, who last week finished third behind Louis Oosthuizen in the Africa Open.

The strong home field also includes Richard Sterne, the 2008 Joburg Open champion, who finished sixth in last week’s Africa Open, and compatriot Tjaart Van der Walt, who pushed Oosthuizen all the way before coming up two strokes short at East London Golf Club.

Argentinian Ariel Canete is another ex-champion in the field, having won in 2007, the first year the event was co-sanctioned by The European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. Englishmen Robert Rock and David Howell are also competing.

Meanwhile, at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Billy Hurley will make his debut as a full member of the PGA Tour – just two and a half years after leaving his position as a lieutenant in the US Navy.

Hurley will join the likes of Tournament of Champions winner Steve Stricker, world No 7 Webb Simpson and K J Choi at Waialae Country Club, where Mark Wilson won last year.

Hurley spent two years aboard the USS Chung-Hoon, a missile destroyer based in Pearl Harbour, before leaving in 2009 and setting his sights on succeeding as a professional golfer.

While at the Naval Academy, the 29-year-old excelled in the amateur game and played in the Palmer and Walker Cups. After failing to gain a tour card he was assigned to the Chung-Hoon and effectively abandoned golf. When he returned, he struggled to rediscover top form.

Hurley told www.pgatour.com: “When you take time off, it’s the finesse shots that become tough. Sure, you can go out there and swing 100 per cent at a seven iron and hit it fine. But when you’ve got to take five yards off a seven iron, you’ve got no chance.”

Hurley was on the Nationwide Tour in 2011 and, in 20 starts, enjoyed nine top-25 finishes, including four top-tens, and claimed the last Tour card by finishing 25th on the money list. He is realistic about his expectations going into the event and said: “You’d love to win a golf tournament and put yourself in contention as much as possible.

“But really if I just go through the process of getting better, then I’ll end up contending somewhere down the road.

“I want to be the guy from the Navy, from the Naval Academy. Nobody’s really done it before.”