Curtis Knipes is hoping to build on a strong start to the 2024 Road to Mallorca campaign as he prepares to tee it up in the NMB Championship at Humewood Golf Club.
The Englishman finished second on the Clutch Pro Tour’s Order of Merit last year to graduate to the Challenge Tour and he made an impressive start to the season with a tied seventh finish at the SDC Open in Limpopo.
“I’m very excited for the season,” he said. “It’s obviously my first year on the Challenge Tour where I will be travelling around week in week out to tournaments and I’m looking forward to visiting new countries and playing new courses.
“I played solid down in Zebula and I took a lot of confidence from my performance. I made a few silly bogeys throughout the week and if I can work on cutting those out, I think I could be in contention this week.”
Knipes is confident in his ability to compete on the Challenge Tour and is targeting back-to-back promotions to secure his DP World Tour playing privileges.
“There is definitely a step up in quality on the Challenge Tour to the satellite tours,” he said. "There are a lot of guys dropping down from the DP World Tour and the standard gets better every year.
“The depth is very strong and everyone is competing for the same goal. I know I’ve got the game to compete out here but I need to keep getting better every day and put in the hard work. My focus will be on finishing in the top 20 on the Rankings to earn my DP World Tour card.”
The 23-year-old, who was the youngest player to tee it up in The 148th Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, is looking forward to another tough test of traditional links golf this week at Humewood Golf Club - Africa’s only true links golf course.
“It will take a lot of patience this week with the wind pumping,” he said. “I feel like I’m in Scotland but luckily the weather is a bit warmer.
“This is a proper links course and it will be important to stay out of trouble. If I can keep it straight off the tee, flight my ball under the wind and concentrate on putting well, I think I stand a good chance.”
A strong field assembles in Port Elizabeth for the fourth and final co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour, which includes DP World Tour winners Darren Fichardt, Hennie Otto, Brandon Stone, Joachim B. Hansen, Ross McGowan, Daniel van Tonder, Rikard Karlberg, Gary Stal and Shaun Norris.
The NMB Championship will get under way at 6:30am local time, with Knipes teeing it up alongside McGowan and South African Luca Filippi at 7:50am.
