Brave Bjørn’s #StrokeOfGenius

The par-five 14^th hole of the Gary Player Country Club is one of the great risk and reward holes of this golf course.

The decision to go for the green with the second shot or lay up is heavily influenced by the large waste bunker and pampas grass guarding a very narrow green.

But in 2013, Denmark’s Thomas Bjørn took this shot on and was rewarded with an eagle that carried him to a two-stroke victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, hosted by Gary Player, that year.

“The risk when you stand at number 14 – it’s do or die,” says Gary Player.“The way the stage was set...he’s not going to win unless he does it. So you can’t play safe at that stage. If you look at where the pin was – it’s a tiny little green. And he’s probably roughly 260 yards from the flag. Now that ball could very well have stuck in the love grass. But he hits it in the right spot and it goes through the kikuyu fringe, onto the green about 10 or 12 feet from the hole and he holes the putt. He goes on to win by two shots.”