ARGENTINIAN Ariel Canete was still on holiday last week, hoping to find some fitness before a heavy Challenger Tour season ahead when he got a call that changed his career.
Canete yesterday found himself holding the inaugural Joburg Open after his final round 67 was enough to clinch a two-shot victory at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf course.
Canete explained that while on holiday, he received a call from his sponsor, who he would only identify as "a big friend", who told him he needed to travel across the Pacific Ocean to South Africa for the tournament.
Before that call, Canete admitted he was not likely to venture into the Republic.
His victory gives him a European Tour exemption until 2009, according to the tournament organisers, and raises him to a category three player as a winner of a tournament.
A clearly overjoyed Canete revealed he was hardly expecting to win and become the first Argentinian player to ever to take victory in South Africa.
He said: "It is difficult to explain, very difficult. I was a category 12 on the Euro Tour and didn't have too many starts.
"I was ready to play the Challenger Tour and now this, it means a lot.
"I was supposed to play the Challenger Tour and I wasn't practising and trying to exercise.
"Then my sponsor called me and he told me `you have to go and play there because you aren't going to get too many starts and it is a good chance because the field isn't the best'."
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