Recovering Clark to hit Sun City in rising form

25 November 2014 - 02:04 By Sports reporter
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Tim Clark of South Africa looks on during round two of the South African Open Golf Championship at the Durban Country Club on December 18, 2010 in Durban
Tim Clark of South Africa looks on during round two of the South African Open Golf Championship at the Durban Country Club on December 18, 2010 in Durban
Image: Julian Finney

Tim Clark will next month make his fifth appearance in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, where he has been arguably South Africa's top performer on the international stage.

With his victory at the Canadian Open, Clark is the only South African to have won on the PGA Tour this year, and has been one of the shining lights in a largely quiet 2014 for South Africa's leading professionals.

Clark recently lost a play-off to Masters champion Bubba Watson for the HSBC Champions in China.

Those have been the standout performances in a year for which Clark admits he didn't have high expectations following a difficult 2013, when he struggled with an elbow injury.

"To have won means a lot. I hadn't had the greatest of years, starting from January.

" I played good in the autumn last year, but this year as a calendar year wasn't the best for me to start with. To turn it around like I have means a lot," said Clark.

Clark returns to Sun City with a rapidly improving record in "Africa's Major".

He has finished 12th, sixth, third and second in his previous four appearances in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

His last appearance was in 2010, when he finished runner-up to Lee Westwood.

The South African admits he will return a different player in many respects to the one South Africans last saw.

The Umkomaas professional is the third South African to confirm his place in the Sun City challenge field, joining Charl Schwartzel and Dawie van der Walt.

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