Tommy Fleetwood became the first back-to- back champion since Lee Westwood in 2010-11.
S CORING AT THE NEDBANK Challenge has fluctuated quite surprisingly in the 40 years of the tournament, rather than evolving steadily as we see at most other prestige events. It is 30 years since Nick Price obliterated the field with his then record 24-under winning total in 1993, and 24 years since Ernie Els beat that with 25-under in 1999. And no one has since come close to that kind of scoring in the new millennium. The scoring in the last 20 years has varied from 21-under by Henrik Stenson in 2008 to six-under by Jim Furyk in 2005. WINNING TOTALS TODAY CAN’T MATCH YESTERYEAR’S SCORING
THE LOWEST WINNING SCORES
Has the golf course been set up consistently more difficult in the last 20 years, or is it because the world’s best players haven’t been participating as much as they did in the 1990s? Sun City hasn’t seen a world No 1 in the field since Luke Donald in 2011. And the only player to have claimed the title as reigning world No 1 was Lee Westwood in 2010. Over the last five tournaments going back to 2016 the average winning score has been higher than usual, comparable to the first decade. Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood’s last two victories were on 11-under 277 and 12-under 276 respectively. Players have struggled to put four sub-par rounds together in this modern era of it being a DP World Tour event with a bigger field. The last winner to have four rounds in the 60s was Marc Leishman in 2015. Branden Grace had a 75 en route to an 11-under victory in 2017, as did Alex Noren to 14-under in 2016. Scoring has generally gone in cycles at Sun City, suggesting course setup and
263 Ernie Els 1999 264 Nick Price 1993 267 Ernie Els 2000
267 Henrik Stenson 2008 268 Sergio Garcia 2001 268 Thomas Bjorn 2013 269 Marc Leishman 2015
rough has played a part in the variances. There was a stretch from 1999 to 2002 when it was 25-under, 20-under (twice) and 21-under (Els again). In those four years Els couldn’t put a foot wrong around the Gary Player, being 86-under for 16 rounds, an average of 66.62. However, over the next five years the average winning score halved itself to 11-under. Two of the toughest years for scoring were 2004 (Retief Goosen on 7-under 281) and 2005 (Jim Furyk on 6-under 282). This equalled the second highest winning score in history. David Frost in 1990 shot four-under 284.
42 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2023
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