SAGA announces team for WATC
The South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced the names of the three players to represent South Africa in the biennial World Amateur Team Championships. The team is Dylan Frittelli, Dean O’Riley and JG Claassen .
The World Amateur Team Championships is being played at the Olivos and Buenos Aires Golf Clubs outside the capital city of Argentina.
Seventy countries are expected to enter the men’s competition, the Eisenhower Trophy, which will be played from 28 to 31 October 2010.
The team manager will be Colin Burger, who is also the SAGA’s Senior Vice president, and he will be supported by Andre Pieterse, the SAGA’s Second Vice President.
The non travelling reserve is Ryan Dreyer from Central Gauteng.
“We feel this is the strongest team available to us at present,” said Enver Hassen, president of the SAGA. “Frittelli and O’Riley are the two players we feel are currently most in-form. They are the highest ranked players on the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings, being 36th and 28th respectively, while O’Riley is ranked No.1 on the current SAGA Player Rankings. Claassen is perhaps the most talented young South African amateur golfer on the local circuit. He has also had experience of playing over the two golf course in Argentina where he reached the second round of the match play stages of the Argentina Amateur Championship last year.”
Dylan Frittelli is studying at the University of Texas on a golf scholarship. The twenty year old amateur golfer is from Pretoria and is a member of the Irene Golf Club. “He is currently ranked 23rd on the US Collegiate Golf Circuit. He is the only player from the team we selected for the 2008 Eisenhower Trophy which was played in Australia,” added Hassen.
Dean O’Riley has played steadily through the year to attain No 1 status in amateur golf in the country. He won the South African Amateur Stroke Play Championship earlier this year. He finished runner up in both the Boland Open and Western Province Stroke Play. The twenty year old Ekurhuleni amateur, who plays his golf at Benoni Lake Club, lost in the semi finals in both the Glacier South African Amateur and Western Province match play Championships.
Other than an impressive victory in the North West Open, nineteen year old JG Claassen, from Orkney Golf Club in the North West Province, has had a quiet year by his standards set last year when he won ten tournaments. Losing in the finals of the Western Province Match Play earlier this year was his next best performance. He is currently ranked third on the SAGA Player Rankings.
South Africa have never won the Eisenhower Trophy, the best ever finish was second recorded in 1980 at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina in the US.