The “Candidates” stage of the SA Closed tournament was played on 28 September. The top four players from the Candidates proceed to the “Contenders” stage of the tournament. The results were as follows:
| Player | Points | SOS* | |
| 1 | Rocco Vivier | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Ben Bredenkamp | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | Paul Edwards | 2 | 5 |
| 4 | David Gale | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | Michael Rapson | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | Paul Steyn | 1 | 4 |
| 7 | Christiaan Maasdorp | 1 | 3 |
*SOS is “sum of opponent scores”