Staff WriterFresh off a final-round 60 that left jaws on the floor and scoreboards in disbelief, Kiera Floyd is swinging into the ABSA Ladies Invitational with momentum most pros would give their 7-iron for.
The Sunshine Ladies Tour’s latest breakout star tees it up this Thursday at Royal Johannesburg—a course she knows intimately and fondly.
Floyd, just 20 years old, isn’t just riding high after her maiden win at the Platinum Ladies Open—she’s returning to the same fairways where she clinched the 2022 South African Women’s Stroke Play Championship. If there’s such a thing as home-course advantage, she’s got it in spades.
“Every week is different, and I have had history on Royal Johannesburg as I won the SA Women’s Stroke Play there, so it’s a good course.
But every week is different and I am just going to go in with a clear mindset and start over,” she explained. “I played well last week and I am going to aim to play well this week, but I just need to settle down and take it as it comes.”
Of course, it won’t be a walk in the park—or down the fairway. This week’s R1.2 million event is stacked with talent.
Familiar names like Casandra Alexander and Nadia van der Westhuizen—each with multiple Sunshine Ladies Tour wins—are on the card.
Add to that Danielle du Toit, who tasted her first victory this season, and you’ve got a leaderboard that could catch fire at any moment.
Then there’s the next-gen threat: rookie Kaiyuree Moodley, who currently tops The R&A Rookie of the Year standings and sits sixth on the Investec Order of Merit.
Moodley has been turning heads all season with her poise and presence, and she’ll be looking to continue that trajectory this week.
Floyd, for her part, is relishing the heightened competition. Especially the international flavour that’s slowly transforming the Sunshine Ladies Tour into a melting pot of golf’s up-and-coming talent.
“It’s a lot tougher. The European girls are really good and it’s a lot more competitive,” Floyd said.
“It is actually nice to play against different players and not the same players all the time, even though the women from South Africa are really good and I have so much respect for them.
“It is just a different field when there are a lot of Europeans because you never know what is going to happen.
They just play a different ballgame so it’s so nice to learn from them. They are so calm on the course so it is a good experience.”
Two of those Europeans—England’s Hayley Davis and Romy Meekers from the Netherlands—are ranked inside the top 10 on the Investec Order of Merit and will be among the international contenders Floyd will need to fend off.
But if last week is anything to go by, Kiera Floyd might just be the one dictating terms.
Cool-headed, calm under pressure, and now carrying the weight of expectation—she’s stepping into Royal Johannesburg not just as a hopeful, but as the player to watch.
