A cutabove: South Africans lead the pack with six victories so far

The South Africans are having an extended run of good form on the European Tour, and it continued with Branden Grace winning the Volvo China Open last week.

There have been 15 events on the European Tour this season and there are already six South African victories — three by Grace, two by Louis Oosthuizen and one by Jbe Kruger.

You kind of expected Louis to play well after he overcame all his injury problems of last year, but Branden has been the real surprise of 2012.

Given the kind of competition we have on the European Tour nowadays, a couple of victories in a season is considered an amazing achievement. To win three is absolutely fantastic. To win three tournaments in his last 10 starts is even more mind-boggling. And when you consider he has done all this as a Qualifying School graduate, that's incredible.

This makes him only the second Qualifying School graduate after Johan Edfors in 2006 to win three events the season after graduation (Joburg Open, Volvo Golf Champions and the Volvo China Open) this year.

While Branden was wowing the world, I could not help notice that Nicolas Colsaerts finished second in the tournament. I have personally won the Volvo China Open and then gone on to win the Volvo Masters, when it used to be the season-ending championship on the European Tour. Martin Kaymer won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the WGC-HSBC Champions the same year in 2011.

Ok... the point I am trying to make is this: there is something about players getting comfortable with tournaments sponsored by the same company. Which is one of the reasons I am very excited about the Ballantines Championship in Korea this week. I have won multiple tournaments on the Asian Tour there.. And I will never forget that exciting battle I had with Graeme McDowell when I lost in a play-off after we both shot 24-under par in regulation play.

Hopefully all those good memories will give me something great to write about next week.

Jeev Milkha Singh is a three-time champion on the European Tour