The Links always provides a first-class but not overly daunting challenge. The fairways were running beautifully. Some of the wetlands have been attractively opened up to showcase vast expanses of water, notably on the dogleg left par-4 15th (Roon the Bend) where the temptation off the tee is to cut off as much of the dogleg as possible without getting wet. Retief Goosen, who won the SA Open at The Links in 2005, plays here regularly in the holiday season and I’m told takes out his driver here and goes tiger line over the water for the green. It’s a 344-metre hole from the yellow tees. The back tee is 92 metres further back.