The Joburg Ladies Open is always a special week in the calendar for Casandra Alexander as the South African tees up in her hometown as one of several past champions.
This year is no different as the Joburg native plays host to several Ladies European Tour (LET) stars in the co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Ladies Tour – the circuit she has five victories on.
“I’m excited for the week,” Alexander said ahead of the tournament at Modderfontein Golf Club. “Hopefully the weather holds up. The course looks great so I’m very excited.
“It’s definitely nice [to be at home]. I enjoy the course and I enjoy staying at home. I actually have Alice Hewson staying with me this week. A little bit of tour life and home life mixed together. I’m very proud to have an event in my hometown. It’s not exactly where I live, but it’s 20 minutes away. I’m really proud of the event, it’s come along way since it started so I’m very happy.
“Alice [Hewson] wanted some steak and I make a really good steak so we’re going to have another braai tonight and take it easy. I made her potatoes and steak. She sent a picture to her caddie Rory and he was very jealous. So yeah, hosting is going good! I’m going to take the boys and some of the other players out for sushi on Friday, so I’m sure they’ll enjoy that.”
As for her form, Alexander arrives back home in Johannesburg having clinched her fifth Sunshine Ladies Tour title two weeks ago at the ABSA Ladies Invitational.
The victory also comes just a few months after Alexander had ankle surgery following a lingering injury in 2023, a year where she still finished 44th in the Order of Merit.
“The game is feeling really good,” the South African continued. “Like I’ve mentioned in a hundred interviews, I had an ankle injury and I had surgery in December. So it was kind of a rushed start to the LET season for me. I think two weeks after I started hitting golf balls again I went out to Saudi.
“I think I needed some time to work on getting back into it. I think I finally feel comfortable with my swing. It’s getting to a really good place. I obviously have a lot of confidence coming into this week. But you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve got a lot of new players out here so we’ll see what happens this week.”
While Alexander will also be taking confidence from the fact she won this tournament in 2021 when it was a sole Sunshine Ladies Tour event.
“It was a great week,” the 24-year-old remembers. “It was actually my first Sunshine Ladies Tour win and first pro win, so it was really exciting. Great memories. I still have the trophy. Every time I see it I think, ‘that was a really cool one.’ It was a really big fight with Pacey [Lee-Anne Pace] and Maiken Bing Paulsen who are LET players too, so great memories and I hope we can have a repeat.”
Alexander gets underway at the Joburg Ladies Open at 07:44 local time playing alongside Sara Kouskova and Diksha Dagar.
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