Johannesburg: The first European Tour event to be held in 2007, the inaugural Joburg Open co-sanctioned with South Africa's Sunshine Tour, begins on Thursday at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington club. 

 South Africa has for some time been trying to get a third European Tour event after the Alfred Dunhill Championship and South African Airways Open, which are traditionally held in December, and the Joburg Open is the result.

Royal Johannesburg and Kensington is one of South Africa's top golf clubs and has two courses  the East and the West - and both will be used for the tournament.

The field is bigger than normal with 200 players, 100 each from the European and Sunshine Tours. The contestants play one round on each before the 36-hole cut for the leading 70 players.

The final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday take place on the East which stretches to just on 7000 metres, making it one of the longest courses to be found anywhere.

The 10th and 11th holes, measuring a back-breaking 474 metres and 457 metres respectively, are believed to be the longest back-to-back par fours in world golf.

"It certainly puts a premium on being able to hit the ball a long way," says South Africa's Charl Schwartzel, 55th in the world and the top ranked player in the field.

"What's more, there's been quite a lot of rain in recent weeks so there's not much run on the ball," he said.

This is a one million euros event, fairly low-key compared to some of the bigger Eurotour events, so few of the big names are here.

But the event is bursting at the seams with journeymen pros, players who have just earned their European Tour cards and Challenge Tour graduates. Among the players who did particularly well at qualifying school and are teeing up here are David Drysdale from Scotland, Swedes Patrik Sjoland, Frederik Andersson Hed and Carl Suneson, and France's 24-year-old Julien Foret who won the Toulouse Open on the Challenge Tour last year - and cites Zinedine Zidane as his sporting hero and inspiration.

Sjoland finished third behind South Africans Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman in the South African Airways Open in December.

The 35-year-old had unbroken European Tour attendance from 1996 to 2005 when he fell out of love with the game, not appearing at all in 2006.

But after the break, and time with his family, his appetite for competitive golf returned and he put it to good use, finishing seventh at qualifying school.

Sweden's Johan Axgren, No 1 on the 2006 Challenge, is playing in the Joburg Open as is fellow graduate Adrien Mork of France who scored 59 in the second round of the Moroccan Classic last year, the first official score of under 60 in the history of the European, Challenge and Senior Tours. He went on to win the tournament.

The Joburg Open is the seventh event on the 2007 European Tour which actually stared in early November last year.

Spanish rookie Alvaro Quiros, who won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in December, is not playing this week. But compatriot and namesake Manuel Quiros is in the field.