Nine international teams will be participating in the International Teams Event which takes place at the same time as the 36 hole stroke play qualifying round of the Glacier SA Amateur Golf Championship at Royal Durban Golf Club, starting on Sunday 2 March 2008, the South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced today.

Jacques Blaauw's vein of rich form continued this past weekend in Bloemfontein where he won the Free State & Northern Cape Open just 2 weeks after lifting the prestigious SA Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Pearl Valley Golf Estates.

Glacier, a financial services company within the Sanlam group, has agreed to a three year sponsorship in which it has taken the naming rights to the country's premier amateur championship, now to be known as the Glacier SA Amateur Golf Championship, the South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced today.

"We welcome Glacier to top end amateur golf. The sport provides a lot of opportunity and enjoyment to the business community and we believe that their involvement at this level of the sport will pay dividends on many levels in the long term," said Neale Kunhardt, President of the SAGA.

Nineteen year old Derik Ferreira moved up seventeen places to 43, according to the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) for week 6, the only South African in the top 50.

The 19 year old Gauteng North amateur golfer has played consistently in four counting tournaments over the last three weeks. His best two finishes have been 9^th in the South African Amateur Stroke Play Championships and 4^th in the Gauteng North Open.

Regional qualifying rounds for the top South African amateur golfers, hoping to compete in the 2008 Glacier S.A. Amateur Championship, have been held all around the country over the past few weeks.

PAARL (8 February 2008) - A birdie on the 72nd hole handed Jacques Blaauw (pictured to the right) the SA Amateur Stroke Play title by a shot over Leon-Brink Knoll at the Pearl Valley Golf Estates on Friday.

PAARL (7 February 2008) - Frenchman Victor Dubuisson and Bolander Jacques Blaauw (pictured on the right) negotiated the torrid winds of Pearl Valley to top the leaderboard after round three of the SA Amateur Stroke Play on Thursday.

PAARL (6 February 2008) - At just 17-years-old, Victor Dubuisson already looks to have a huge future in the game of golf. The eccentric French teenager is the halfway leader in the SA Amateur Stroke Play at Pearl Valley Golf Estates following a second round one-over par 73 on Wednesday.