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George Coetzee

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George Coetzee
Coetzee at the 2011 BMW International Open
Personal information
Full nameGeorge William Coetzee
Born (1986-07-18) 18 July 1986 (age 38)
Pretoria, South Africa
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight95 kg (209 lb; 15.0 st)
Sporting nationality South Africa
ResidencePretoria, South Africa
Career
Turned professional2007
Current tour(s)Sunshine Tour
European Tour
Former tour(s)Canadian Tour
Professional wins16
Highest ranking41 (27 January 2013)[1]
Number of wins by tour
European Tour5
Asian Tour1
Sunshine Tour14
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentCUT: 2013
PGA ChampionshipT7: 2015
U.S. OpenT56: 2013
The Open Championship15th: 2011
Achievements and awards
Sunshine Tour
Order of Merit winner
2015, 2017–18

George William Coetzee (born 18 July 1986) is a South African professional golfer. He has won five tournaments on the European Tour and 14 on the Sunshine Tour, where he has also topped the Order of Merit on two occasions.

Early life

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Coetzee was born in Pretoria and matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in 2004. He started playing golf when he was 10 and won the first junior tournament he ever played in, shooting 49 in 9 holes. He finished 4th and 8th in the Callaway Junior World Championship in San Diego, where he attended the University of San Diego for one semester. He turned professional in 2007.

Professional career

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Having turned professional, Coetzee joined the Sunshine Tour in 2007. He claimed his first win during his rookie season, in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour event at Selborne. His second and third wins came a year later at the SAA Pro-Am Invitational, and the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour event at Humewood.

He earned a European Tour card for the 2010 season through the qualifying school, but had to return to qualifying school at the end of the season after finishing 126th on the Order of Merit and recording only two top-10 finishes. Coetzee regained his playing rights in 2011. He had a runner-up placing at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, where he lost out to Thomas Bjorn on the fifth extra hole of a five-man playoff. He also had three third-place finishes at other tournaments and eight top-10s overall. Coetzee finished the season ranked 26th on the Race to Dubai. The following season, 2012, he finished 21st on the Race to Dubai and reached the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

In February 2014, Coetzee won his maiden European Tour title in his 107th start with a three stroke victory at the Joburg Open. He came from four strokes behind in the final round with a six under par 66 to claim victory.[2] Coetzee won his second European Tour title at the Tshwane Open in March 2015, by a single stroke over Jacques Blaauw. In May 2015, Coetzee won his second tournament of the year at the inaugural AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, defeating Thorbjørn Olesen in a sudden-death playoff, at the second extra hole with a birdie on the par-five 18th hole. He won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit that season.

In February 2016, Coetzee won the Dimension Data Pro-Am finishing birdie-birdie-eagle to defeat Dean Burmester by a single stroke. In July 2017, Alan Burns, who had been Coetzee's caddie since 2010, took another opportunity with another South African golfer Brandon Stone.[3] Coetzee won his second Sunshine Tour Order of Merit title in 2017–18; during the season he won the co-sanctioned Tshwane Open, his fourth European Tour victory.

In September 2020, Coetzee won his fifth tournament on the European Tour at the Portugal Masters. This was his first win in mainland Europe and his first European Tour win that was not co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour.[4]

Amateur wins

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  • 2006 Northern Amateur Open[5]

Professional wins (16)

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European Tour wins (5)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 9 Feb 2014 Joburg Open1 65-68-69-66=268 −19 3 strokes England Tyrrell Hatton, South Korea Jin Jeong,
South Africa Justin Walters
2 15 Mar 2015 Tshwane Open1 67-66-68-65=266 −14 1 stroke South Africa Jacques Blaauw
3 10 May 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open1,2 70-67-65-69=271 −13 Playoff Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen
4 4 Mar 2018 Tshwane Open1 (2) 67-64-68-67=266 −18 2 strokes England Sam Horsfield
5 13 Sep 2020 Portugal Masters 66-70-66-66=268 −16 2 strokes England Laurie Canter

1Co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour
2Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2011 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles Denmark Thomas Bjørn, England Mark Foster,
Spain Pablo Larrazábal, Austria Bernd Wiesberger
Bjørn won with birdie on fifth extra hole
Foster eliminated by par on fourth hole
Larrazábal eliminated by par on second hole
Wiesberger eliminated by par on first hole
2 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen Won with birdie on second extra hole

Asian Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory
Runner-up
1 10 May 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open1 70-67-65-69=271 −13 Playoff Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen

1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour

Asian Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen Won with birdie on second extra hole

Sunshine Tour wins (14)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 15 Jun 2007 Vodacom Origins of Golf at Selborne 70-71-66=207 −9 2 strokes South Africa Ulrich van den Berg
2 23 Aug 2008 SAA Pro-Am Invitational 72-66-69=207 −9 3 strokes South Africa Warren Abery, Scotland Doug McGuigan
3 19 Sep 2008 Vodacom Origins of Golf (2) at Humewood 71-68-73=212 −4 1 stroke South Africa Jean Hugo
4 27 Feb 2011 Telkom PGA Championship 65-64-68-64=261 −27 2 strokes South Africa Neil Schietekat
5 9 Feb 2014 Joburg Open1 65-68-69-66=268 −19 3 strokes England Tyrrell Hatton, South Korea Jin Jeong,
South Africa Justin Walters
6 15 Mar 2015 Tshwane Open1 67-66-68-65=266 −14 1 stroke South Africa Jacques Blaauw
7 10 May 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open1,2 70-67-65-69=271 −13 Playoff Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen
8 21 Feb 2016 Dimension Data Pro-Am 68-70-64-66=268 −21 1 stroke South Africa Dean Burmester
9 4 Mar 2018 Tshwane Open1 (2) 67-64-68-67=266 −18 2 strokes England Sam Horsfield
10 2 Nov 2019 Vodacom Origins of Golf Final (3) 61-69-66=196 −20 3 strokes South Africa M. J. Viljoen
11 4 Sep 2020 Titleist Championship 67-70-66=203 −13 4 strokes South Africa Tristen Strydom
12 6 Aug 2021 Vodacom Origins of Golf (4) at De Zalze 63-66-69=198 −18 3 strokes South Africa Jaco Ahlers, South Africa Tristen Strydom
13 6 Aug 2022 Vodacom Origins of Golf (5) at De Zalze 61-67-67=195 −21 2 strokes England Joe Long
14 6 Nov 2022 PGA Championship (2) 67-71-67-68=273 −15 3 strokes South Africa Casey Jarvis

1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
2Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour

Sunshine Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen Won with birdie on second extra hole

Other wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory
Runners-up
1 13 Nov 2011 Gary Player Invitational
(with England Mark James)
64-61=125 −19 4 strokes South Africa Jaco van Zyl and Wales Ian Woosnam

Results in major championships

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Results not in chronological order in 2020.

Tournament 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Masters Tournament CUT
U.S. Open CUT T56 T70 CUT
The Open Championship 15 CUT T71 18 CUT CUT CUT
PGA Championship CUT CUT CUT T7 T60
Tournament 2019 2020 2021
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship CUT
U.S. Open
The Open Championship NT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

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Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 1 6 2
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 3
Totals 0 0 0 0 1 3 18 7
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 2 (2013 U.S. Open – 2013 Open Championship)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1

Results in World Golf Championships

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Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.

Tournament 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Championship T53 T16 57 T56
Match Play R64 R64 R16 T17
Invitational T21
Champions T56 74 T12 T40 T50
  Top 10
  Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied

Team appearances

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Professional

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 4 2013 Ending 27 Jan 2013" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  2. ^ McEwan, Michael (10 February 2014). "Coetzee wins maiden title at last". Bunkered. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  3. ^ "Who's That Caddie: PGA Championship". 29 July 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  4. ^ "South African George Coetzee wins Portugal Masters". Associated Press. 13 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  5. ^ "Coetzee takes Northern Amateur". South African Golf Association. 10 April 2006. Archived from the original on 26 September 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
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