DID YOU KNOW – ALFRED DUNHILL CHAMPIONSHIP
• The championship has a history of producing debut winners. Since the first playing in 2000, eight have entered the winners circle for the first time on The European Tour. They are: Anthony Wall (2000), Adam Scott (2001), Justin Rose (2002), Mark Foster (2003), Marcel Siem (2004), Charl Schwartzel (2005), Alvaro Quiros (2007) and Garth Mulroy 2011 (Nov 2011).
• Branden Grace will looking to make a successful defence of a European Tour title for the first time. He won the 2015 Alfred Dunhill Championship in wire-to-wire fashion. He was one of five players to win in this fashion during the 2015 campaign.
• Charl Schwartzel will be looking to make history by becoming the first South African player to win the same official European Tour events on four occasions, having won the event in the 2005, 2013 and 2014 seasons. (Ernie Els has the World Match Play Championship seven times. However his wins in 2004 and 2007 were the only official ones).
• Should Charl Schwartzel win for a fourth time the South African would become the eighth player in European Tour history to win the same official event four or more times.
• The 2003 Championship witnessed, for only the second time in European Tour history a six-man play-off. Mark Foster was the player who prevailed, beating Anders Hansen, Trevor Immelman, Paul Lawrie, Doug McGuigan and Bradford Vaughan. The first time this occurred was the 1990 Vino Verde Atlantic Open.
• European Tour history was made in the 2007 tournament, when Alvaro Quiros became the first player to win a European Tour event in his first event as a full Member, having graduated from the 2006 European Tour Qualifying School.
• Louis Oosthuizen will be looking to win his eighth European Tour title and first at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Of his 12 professional victories, nine have been in his homeland.
• Charl Schwartzel has played in the tournament ten times at Leopard Creek. Apart from his three wins has also been placed second on a further four occasions; in the 2006 season, 2007, 2010 and 2011. His stroke average for his ten appearances since 2005 is 69.18 and is 107 under par.
• In the 2013 event European Tour history was made when Keith Horne became the first player to make two holes-in-one at the same hole in consecutive rounds of the same tournament. He aced the par three 12th on days two and three.
Niclas Fasth will be competing in his 500th official European Tour event. He becomes the second Swede to reach the milestone, following Robert Karlsson.
