With many having taken on the Nedbank Golf Challenge from December 5 to 8, some of the world’s best golfers are now getting ready to return to Leopard Creek Country Club for the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The Alfred Dunhill Championship has been a staple of both the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour since its introduction to the golfing calendar in 2000. After six events were held at Houghton Golf Club in the first five years, the prestigious tournament made the move to Leopard Creek in 2005 and has called this course adjacent to the Kruger National Park home ever since.

This means 2024 marks the 18th time that the Alfred Dunhill Championship has been held at Leopard Creek. Only two years (2017 and 2021) have been missed due to course renovations and Covid-19 travel restrictions respectively. It now also forms part of the DP World Tour’s Opening Swing, where it is the penultimate tournament in the first of five global swings in the 2025 Race to Dubai.

It is preceded by the Nedbank Golf Challenge this week, and is followed by the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in two weeks’ time. With a prize purse of €1.5m (roughly R29m), some of the world’s best will descend on Leopard Creek in a week’s time to battle it out for this coveted trophy.

Five of the world’s top 100 golfers will tee it up during this year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, these being Mbombela native Thriston Lawrence (48th), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (55th), Nicolai Højgaard (58th), Erik van Rooyen (74th) and Romain Langasque (85th).

Lawrence is the only player inside the top 50 taking part, and he is not only the highest ranked South African, but also the highest ranked golfer taking part in the championship.

Eight former champions will throw their hat in the ring too, including the most successful golfer in the history of the tournament, Charl Schwartzel, who has won the title four times and holds its record aggregate score. He will be joined by fellow champions Álvaro Quirós (2006), Richard Sterne (2008), Brandon Stone (2016), Pablo Larrazábal (2019), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (2020), Ockie Strydom (2022) and Louis Oosthuizen (2023).

Defending champion Oosthuizen will have a tough time if he wants to become only the third champion to retain their title.

The runner-up of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the sister tournament to the Alfred Dunhill Championship held in Scotland, Nicolas Colsaerts, will make his debut at Leopard Creek in a bid to become the first Belgian to win the competition.

After South Africa with 12 titles, Spain is the next most successful nationality at the tournament with four titles. A strong group of Spanish golfers will look to be the next to join the winner’s circle and become the fourth Spanish champion at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, with Jorge Campillo being the highest ranked at 107th in the world.

There will of course also be a strong South African cohort this year hunting for their first win. Lawrence is yet to find success on the greens of Leopard Creek, and so is Dean Burmester, who has enjoyed a good year on the LIV Golf tour in 2024, which included one win and three top 10s.

Youngster Aldrich Potgieter will come off a good year on the Korn Ferry Tour having earned his PGA Tour card in October. He finished tied second at last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge too and is in good form coming to Leopard Creek.

Sunshine Tour Order of Merit leader Daniel van Tonder will also be in the field along with second-placed Jonathan Broomhead and third-placed Yurav Premlall. Van Rooyen will also be hunting for his
first title.

The 2024 Alfred Dunhill Championship tees off at Leopard Creek on December 12. If you would like to purchase tickets to watch the tournament, visit www.sunshinetour.com/tickets.