George Coetzee is making a logical progression towards his destiny – a debut win on the European Tour.

After two third place finishes earlier in the year, the latest star to roll off our South African production belt went one better at the Johnnie Walker in Gleneagles – finishing runner up to Thomas Bjorn after a five-man, five-hole play-off. 

It was an unbelievable week for George because after the first round it looked like he would be following the weekend action from an armchair rather than being centre stage on Sunday evening.

Only four players carded scores worse than George’s opening 77, but an improvement of 11 shots the following day saw him comfortably make the last two rounds.    And two 67’s put him into the play-off where Bjorn’s birdie on the fifth extra hole was good enough to take the title.

Now after finishing second, I have every confidence that we will be crowning George The First in the very near future.

It was very pleasing to see Chris Wood returning to some of his early season form, sharing 15th place with Simon Dyson.   I am convinced that this pair will be among our best performers over the next few years.

Ernie Els managed to dodge a bullet and Hurricane Irene in New Jersey – finishing high enough to qualify for this week’s event in Boston. Ernie knew he had to jump into the top 100 to qualify for the Deutsche Bank and moved from 118th to 99th before Irene had her say in the Garden State.  Now his task is to get into the top 70 to make it on to the Chicago leg of the US Tour’s play-offs.