Nedbank Golf Challenge Power Rankings
By Matt Coles
The penultimate event of the European Tour season takes place this week, as the field descends on South Africa for the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
These final two weeks of the 2019 European Tour season will decide the ultimate prize winner, the man who will be crowned the Race to Dubai champion for the year, and it starts here at the Nedbank.
Coming into the penultimate event of the schedule, Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger still holds a 385 point lead over his nearest challenger, Spain’s Jon Rahm.
He will travel to Sun City this week off the back of a poor showing in Turkey, where he only just finished inside the top 50 come Sunday evening.
The venue for this week’s European Tour outing is the Gary Player Country Club, home to one of the longest golf courses in the world, measuring just short of 8,000 yards.
The course is aligned with both water and sand hazards, which players will have to manoeuvre their way around if they are to have success in South Africa this week.
The two showpiece holes are the finishing holes to each nine. The par-5 9th measures at 596 yards, and with a lake and plenty of shrubbery guarding the front of the green, it provides a tough test for any golfer who wants to reach in two.
At the other end of the course, the 502-yard par-4 finishing hole can make a good round look very ordinary in just a matter of moments. The green of the dog-leg left closing salvo at GPCC is protected by bunkers, while the fairway has plenty of water that lures errant tee shots in. A par on the last is a coveted score, especially come Sunday afternoon with a title at $2.5million at stake.
The Nedbank Golf Challenge has been a European Tour event for six years prior to the 2019 edition, with no man earning multiple victories since the tournament moved up to ET level.
Reigning champion Lee Westwood has won the event three times in history, with his back-to-back wins in 2010 and 2011 coming on the Sunshine Tour, the Southern Africa golfing tour.
Only one South African has lifted the trophy since the event gained European Tour status, with Branden Grace tasting success back in 2017. Alex Noren, Marc Leishman, Danny Willett and Thomas Bjorn are the other winners of the Nedbank Golf Challenge since 2013, its first year on the ET calendar.
This year, the event holds the biggest winner’s prize in European Tour history, with the $2.5million topping last week’s Turkish Airlines Open prize by 25%.
But who will go on to take the title in 2019, and boost their chances of the Race to Dubai crown in Dubai in two weeks’ time? Take a look at our power rankings for ‘Africa’s Major’ this week.