World Number 17 Ernie Els will return home to headline the field at the Alfred Dunhill Championship from December 10-13, which will herald the start of The 2010 Race to Dubai.
Els this week confirmed his place in the €1million event, which will be played at Leopard Creek Golf Club in Mpumalanga, South Africa, and is again being co-sanctioned by The European Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
He will be joined in the field by Ryder Cup star and nine-time European Tour champion Thomas Björn of Denmark, who will be making his first appearance in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek, as well as the Dane’s fellow Ryder Cup players Paul McGinley of Ireland and England’s David Howell.
Els’ record at the event is an impressive one, having won once and finished in the top ten in three of his last five visits.
The 40 year old heads to Leopard Creek GC in good heart, having finished 11th in the inaugural Race to Dubai thanks largely to his top ten finishes in The 138th Open Championship at Turnberry in July and the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in August.
The closest he came to adding to his 24 European Tour titles victory was when, despite shooting a round of 63 on the final day, he was beaten by a single stroke by Phil Mickelson at the WGC – HSBC Champions in China.
With Els in the field, the event welcomes back a total of five former winners to Leopard Creek: 2006 champion John Bickerton of England, 2007 winner Alvaro Quiros of Spain, and the South African duo of Charl Schwartzel, who won in 2005, and defending champion Richard Sterne.
