Johannesburg — HOPES that SA's fourth-highest ranked golfer, Tim Clark, would make his comeback later this week at the inaugural Joburg Open after a neck injury in November were dashed yesterday when it was confirmed the world No23 had not yet recovered.

The Joburg Open, which boasts a lucrative prize fund of €1m and is one of only three tournaments on the Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned by the European Tour, will be played at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club from this Thursday to Sunday.

Clark suffered a neck injury during the pro-am of the Nelson Mandela Invitational -- SA's premier golf charity event -- late in November and as a result had to withdraw from the SAA South African Open at Humewood Golf Club last month -- one of the most popular events on the South African golf calendar.

Sunshine Tour commissioner Johan Immelman said at the SA Open that the golfer planned to make his comeback this week if he recovered from the injury.

However, a disappointed Immelman confirmed yesterday that Clark was still nursing the injury and would not participate.

Despite this and the absence of SA's other top golfers, including Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, Immelman was pleased with the quality of the field and said that, like any other golf event, it was important to create awareness and grow the event in order to lure the world's top golfers.

Dunhill Championship winner Alvaro Quiros, SA's most promising young golfer, Charl Schwartzel, and Sweden's Patrik Sjöland -- who finished third in the SA Open -- are three of the top golfers who will feature at the event.

They will go head to head with some of the Sunshine Tour's other top players, such as Hennie Otto, Bradford Vaughan and Thomas Aiken.

The Joburg Open will be unique in that it will include two full fields of 102 golfers each, from the Sunshine and European tours, playing on two separate courses over the four days.

Two fields, one made up of the players from the European Tour and the other made up of Sunshine tour players, will play on different courses on day one and then swap courses on day two.

The cut will then be made with the top 70 and ties at the end of play on day two. The entire field will then play the west course on Saturday and the east course on Sunday.

"Having two fields is great because it gives more of our tour members and European golfers the opportunity to participate in the event and even some golfers who just came out of tour school," said Immelman.

"If we had a normal, limited field event, there would only have been 156 golfers and only half of those would have been our tour members.

"Having two courses in the event requires more planning and effort, logistically, and involve higher costs but this event is all about giving members a chance."

In line with Immelman's goal of creating opportunities for their members, the winner of the event will get a two-year exemption on the European Tour -- a valuable prize for any South African golfers who want to boost their careers.

Two final qualifying events for the Joburg Open will be held at the Killarney Country Club and Kempton Park Country Club tomorrow where 170 golfers will compete for the final 35 places.

Immelman said that, in the spirit of the event, the stakeholders had agreed not to charge entry fees for the public throughout the competition.