DID YOU KNOW - NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge became part of The European Tour International Schedule for the first time for the 2014 season. (The event was first played in 1981 and won by Johnny Miller). Last season the event was the 11th different European Tour event to be staged in South Africa. This will be the 34th hosting of the event.
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge will be the opening event of the 2015 European Tour season. This will be the sixth consecutive season that South Africa will have had the honour of staging the first event. Here is the list: 2010-2011 (Alfred Dunhill Championship), 2012 (Africa Open), 2013 (Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa), 2014 (South African Open Championship hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni) and 2015 (Nedbank Golf Challenge). (This will be the seventh time overall. The first occasion was in 1999 at the Alfred Dunhill SA PGA Championship).
• Thomas Bjørn will looking to make a successful defence of the crown he won 12 months ago. Should he achieve the feat he would join Seve Ballesteros (1983-84), David Frost (1989-90), Nick Price (1997-98), Ernie Els (1998-99), Jim Furyk (2005-06) and Lee Westwood (2010-11), as players to win in back-to-back years. In all eight players have record multiple victories in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
• Three players have won the event on three occasions. They are: David Frost, Nick Price and Ernie Els. The four-time Major Champion holds the tournament scoring record with 263 (-25) back in 1999.
• There have been 13 different Major Champions who have their names etched on the roll of honour.
• Three winners of the Nedbank Golf Challenge are competing this year. They are: Thomas Bjørn, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, three Major Champions, Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel and three former World Number Ones’, Luke Donald, Kaymer and Westwood. In addition, five of Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup Team. They are: Bjørn, Jamie Donaldson, Stephen Gallacher, Kaymer and Westwood.
• The Gary Player Country Club is the third longest course in European Tour history, at 7,831 yards. In second, 18 yards longer than Sun City is the Ritz-Carlton Golf, venue for the WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship, between 2009-11). The longest is another South African course, the Copperleaf Golf & Country Estate, where the 2014 Tshwane Open was played, measuring 7,964 yards.
• The Sun City venue also played host to European Tour competition prior to the Nedbank Golf Challenge. In 1996-1997 the Dimension Data Pro-Am took place and won by Mark McNulty (1996) and Nick Price (97).
