Branden Grace of South Africa poses with his trophy after winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on 12 November 2017. Picture: EPA-EFE/Christiaan Kotze
The 2022 edition of the Nedbank Golf Challenge takes place at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City from Thursday to Sunday.
Here’s everything you need to know about the biggest and richest tournament in South Africa.
The well-known Sun City event is now part of the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour). It is the penultimate event of the season, with the finale, the DP World Tour Championship, next week in Dubai.
When the tournament was still called the ‘Million Dollar’ it used to be an ‘invite-only’ event, with only 12 select players at times taking on the par-72 layout.
The tournament wasn’t held in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid pandemic, so Tommy Fleetwood from England, the winner in 2019, is still the defending champion. And he will tee it up this week, alongside 65 others golfers.
Other notables in the field include Ryan Fox of New Zealand, who is second in the Race to Dubai standings, the Højgaard brothers, Nicolai and Rasmus, Robert McIntyre, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Eddie Pepperel, Adrian Meronk, Jordan Smith and Luke Donald.
Unfortunately many of this country’s biggest names in golf won’t be teeing it up. But, there are 10 locals in the field, all looking to win the famous trophy on Sunday.
Former winner from 2017 Branden Grace will be in action, and he’ll be joined by Thriston Lawrence, Oliver Bekker, Zander Lombard, George Coetzee, Justin Walters, Shaun Norris, JC Ritchie, Richard Sterne, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
This will be the 40th edition of the tournament. The winner will receive a pay cheque of $1-million.
The tournament has been labelled ‘Africa’s Major’ and includes a top-class list of former winners, dating back to 1981 when Johnny Miller was the champion.
Seve Ballesteros was a two-time winner, while David Frost, Nick Price, Ernie Els and Lee Westwood were each three-time winners.
Besides Grace, Frost and Els, other South African winners are Fulton Allem, Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman.
