Home Sport Grace, Bezuidenhout lead SA charge at Sun City

Grace, Bezuidenhout lead SA charge at Sun City

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South Africa will be hoping for a local champion again when Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezuidenhout tee off at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City on Thursday.

Branden Grace of South Africa tees off on the first day of the LIV Golf Invitational in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 14 October 2022. Picture: EPA

LED BY Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Africa will be hoping for a local champion again when the Nedbank Golf Challenge tees off at Gary Player Country Club at Sun City on Thursday.

It will be the 40th staging of the tournament, after it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19.

Grace was the last South African to win the tournament, in 2017, with Englishmen Lee Westwood (2018) and Tommy Fleetwood (2019) taking top honours since then.

It will also be the first time Grace returns to play an event co-sanctioned by the Sunshine and DP World Tours since he joined the LIV Golf series.

The 34-year-old Grace was the top SA player on that circuit as he earned the equivalent of a whopping R304-million from the six events he competed in, having had to withdraw from the Bangkok tournament due to injury.

Grace was second on the overall season earnings, with American Dustin Johnson topping the charts with over R651m.

However, judging his form as he returns to a full-field, 72-hole event may be difficult, although it would take a brave person to bet against Grace, who won four times in his breakthrough season on the DP World Tour in 2012.

He has since brought his tally of DP World Tour victories to nine, including a win in the SA Open in 2020, and has six top 10 finishes in Majors.

Bezuidenhout, meanwhile, continued to make his way on the US PGA Tour in the 2021/22 season as he ended 51st on the FedExCup standings.

Incidentally, that worked out to earnings of $2.2m (R39m) on the premier golf tour in the world.

Having played four events on the new US PGA Tour season, the 28-year-old has a best finish of 20th.

Bezuidenhout already ranks first in strokes gained around the green. His short game will be particularly important at a testing Gary Player Country Club, and could make him one of the favourites this week.

In fact, he also won the SA Open on the same course when it was held there in November 2020.

Another SA player who could contend strongly is George Coetzee.

The two-time Sunshine Tour Order of Merit winner comes into the NGC off the back of a three-stroke victory in the Sunshine Tour’s PGA Championship at St Francis Links last week.

“The confidence I take from beating the field here is a big boost and I’m generally pretty happy with the swing that has shown up for the last couple of weeks,” Coetzee said.

The other SA players who could be in the mix are Thriston Lawrence, Oliver Bekker, Zander Lombard, Justin Walters, Shaun Norris, JC Ritchie and Richard Sterne.

In total, 66 players will compete for the $1m (R17.8m) first prize this week in a field that includes defending champion Fleetwood.

Tickets for the Nedbank Golf Challenge are available, starting at R40 for the Pro-Am and R250 for tournament rounds, while hospitality packages for the Circa Champions Club, Circa Pavilion or Circa 18th Green can be also be purchased.

The 2019 edition of the Nedbank Golf Challenge delivered record attendance figures and sold-out hospitality.

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