NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE
Viktor Hovland is the top-ranked player to beat this year. Wait goes on for SA winner at Sun City
N OT A SUMMER GOES BY without a South African golf- er winning at least two of the DP World Tour tournaments held here at home. In the last few years, those players have included Dylan Naidoo, Shaun Norris, Louis Oost- huizen, Dean Burmester, Thriston Lawrence and Ockie Strydom. However, there has only been one South African winner at Sun City in the 10 years since the Nedbank Golf Challenge became part of the DP World
hasn’t been a foreign winner since 2019. Firstly, it’s played on one of the most unyieldingly difficult of layouts, the Gary Player Country Club, and second- ly the tournament’s history and bigger galleries makes it a much bigger pres- sure cauldron than any of the others. Many would say it’s the ultimate title in golf for a South African to win, outside of the major championships. Holding up that iconic crystal glass trophy in front of packed grandstands around the 18th green could be the
Tour. That was Branden Grace in 2017. There was a close call last year when Aldrich Potgieter, then 20 and a spon- sor’s invite, seemed on the brink of victory, before it all unravelled for him at the par-3 12th hole on Sunday, and he lost by one shot to American Johannes Veerman. The Nedbank Challenge is clearly a tougher tournament to win for locals than the SA Open or Joburg Open, and particularly the Alfred Dunhill Cham- pionship at Leopard Creek, where there
STAR ATTRACTION Viktor Hovland is a study in concentration at this year’s Masters at Augusta National.
64 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025
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