The 2020 European Tour season starts right here, with the Alfred Dunhill Championship beginning the 2020 Race to Dubai. Ahead of the European Tour’s return to Leopard Creek Country Club, we take a look at this week’s key story lines.
The journey begins
Just over a week after coming through European Tour Qualifying School Final Stage, 21 of the 28 players who gained their card at the grueling six-round contest will get their 2020 season under way in South Africa.
Benjamin Poke, who strolled to a six-shot victory at Lumine Golf Club, is among those looking to carry his form into the first event of the season, with the Dane joined in the field by his 18-year-old compatriot Rasmus Højgaard who also secured his card at Final Stage. Three-time European Tour winner Grégory Havret will make his European Tour comeback after a season on the European Challenge Tour, while England’s Laurie Canter also marks his return to European Tour action.
The graduates
The tournament will also mark a new chapter for the Challenge Tour Class of 2019, with 14 of the 15 graduates from last season’s Road to Mallorca Rankings teeing it up in South Africa this week. Francesco Laporta, who captured both the Road to Mallorca crown and Challenge Tour Grand Final title in the Balearic Island finale three weeks ago, will get his season started at Leopard Creek, with Adrian Meronk, the first Polish player to earn full European Tour status, also set for his first start of the new campaign.
South African stronghold
The Alfred Dunhill Championship has a rich history of producing homegrown winners, with six South Africans sharing nine wins between them since the tournament’s inception in 2000. Charles Schwartzel is the most prolific South African in this event, winning a record four times, including three victories in the space of four years between 2012 and 2015. Former World Number One Ernie Els, who returns this week, won in 2005, with Brandon Stone the most recent South African player to lift the title in 2017. His triumph was the sixth consecutive home victory at the championship, with South Africans winning every edition of the contest between 2011 and 2017.
There will be plenty of players looking to add to that tally this week including rising star Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who clinched his maiden title at the 2019 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
Stunning surroundings
Nestled on the southern edge of Kruger National Park, the Gary Player designed Leopard Creek Country Club is considered one of the most spectacular venues on the European Tour International Schedule, with the par five 13th, which runs alongside Crocodile River, among the most memorable holes in golf. The destination’s breathtaking surroundings mean that players will be sharing the fairways with a variety of wildlife, including hippos, crocodiles, buffalos and even elephants.
The Master
If there is one man who knows how to tame Leopard Creek, it is Charl Schwartzel. The South African has won the Alfred Dunhill Championship on four separate occasions, with the 2011 Masters Champion also finishing second four further times in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011. In his 12 appearances at the venue, Schwartzel is an impressive 119 under par.
