Casandra Alexander is back in her home territory and excited for the week ahead at the 2023 Joburg Ladies Open.
The South African has had an excellent start to the year having won twice on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in 2023 at the SuperSport Ladies Challenge and the Jabra Ladies Classic.
And Johannesburg resident Alexander is looking forward to enjoying her home comforts – one of the benefits of having a tournament close to home.
“I have a few friends and family coming out to watch, so hopefully at the weekend I play well and a lot more come out,” she said.
“I’m feeling good. I have won the Joburg Open before when it wasn’t a co-sanctioned event, so I’m really excited for the event. The course is looking good, it’s good to see my people and stay at home. I’m very excited for the week.
“I definitely have a lot of confidence from the two wins, but this is a different ball game. I’m definitely taking the confidence with me but it’s a tough field so I’m really going to have to stick to my routines this week.”
The co-sanctioned tournament between the Ladies European Tour (LET) and Sunshine Ladies Tour will see 132 competitors tee it up in a 72-hole stroke play competition where there will be a cut after 36 holes.
Modderfontein Golf Club is staging the event for the second time, after also hosting the inaugural co-sanctioned event in 2022.
Alexander, who will tee it up at 12.58pm local time in round one, is expecting a tough test around the golf course and believes strategy and tee shots will be key.
She explained: “It’s a sneaky tricky course, it almost puts you or tricks you into certain situations is what I find.
“Playing very basic golf is the key, but off the tee it’s going to be very challenging because there’s a lot of trees out here so if you’re not on the fairway you’re going to have tough approach shots.”
With two wins under her belt in 2023 and a top-20 finish at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, Alexander has confidence in her game.
However, she doesn’t believe there is one single thing that’s working well, and it is more the fact all elements of her game are coming together.
And despite leading the Sunshine Ladies Tour Order of Merit, the 23-year-old is not getting carried away this week.
She added: “Everything is getting better slowly. Instead of one thing getting better and then something is not so good and you end up working on that.
“Overall, I think I have worked on everything together. I’m excited for this week and excited for the whole year – let’s see how it goes.
“I definitely do not have any expectations; I think it’s going to be a fun week. It’s one of those golf courses where you don’t really know what will happen depending on where you put pins and things. We’ll see what the scores are.”
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