Nedbank Challenge in honour of Gary Player...details/ Entry list

 DP World Tour : Nedbank Challenge in honour of Gary Player..

• Entry List

This year this 66 man invitational version of the annual Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa, takes place alongside the Crown Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, this year with a new criteria with a spot at the Masters for a one of six National Championship winners.

Needless to say DP Tour members are very busy this week as the Christmas break approaches, especially since Rory McIlroy has signed for a 2 year commitment to play the Australian Open

The DP World Tour continues its 13 month global odyssey on the 2026 Race to Dubai with its first visit to South Africa this season for the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player. Here are your five things to know.

Veerman defends

Last season, American Johannes Veerman capped a dream debut at the Nedbank Golf Challenge as he beat South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter, England’s Matthew Jordan and France's Romain Langasque by a stroke to claim the biggest victory of his career. 

A final round of 69 saw him overturn a five-shot deficit ahead of the final round and claim his second DP World Tour title, following his breakthrough win at the D+D REAL Czech Masters in August 2021. 

The 33-year-old is aiming to become the eighth player in the history of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and only the second American after Jim Furyk, to successfully defend his title. “My first experience of the Nedbank Golf Challenge was amazing," he said. "I had heard so much about the tournament and watched it over the years, so to be able to win it was a dream come true. Everything about the week was truly world class."

Course enhancements

First staged in 1981 as the Million Dollar Challenge, the Nedbank Golf Challenge has featured on the DP World Tour schedule since 2014. 

Since its inception, Gary Player Country Club has played host to the tournament, which today boasts a $6 million prize fund. Ahead of this year's staging, Player has personally overseen key strategic and aesthetic changes to the layout. 

Bush has been cleared from the right side of the par-three fourth hole, showcasing more of the green and water hazard from the tee. The par-three seventh has a new tee complex, with the professional tee pushed back 25 metres. The right fairway bunker on the par-five ninth has been removed to entice the players to be more aggressive on this feature hole. The par-five 14th has also had bush cleared down the right-hand side in preparation of a new tee here in the future. Behind the 14th green there is a new player pathway through the bush leading to a new back tee on the 15th.

Hovland makes Sun City debut as part of elite field

Year on year, the Nedbank Golf Challenge features a strong international field of dual DP World Tour and PGA TOUR members, alongside some invites welcomed by South African great Gary Player. It is an Invitational, with 66 players this year, as opposed to full field of 156.

The headline act is Viktor Hovland, with the European Ryder Cup star - the first Norwegian to win on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR - set for his debut on South African soil this week. 

Another player who is making his first trip to Sun City is Canada's Nick Taylor, a five-time PGA TOUR winner. England's Marco Penge, who finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy in last season's Race to Dubai Rankings, makes his second start of the Opening Swing on the DP World Tour after playing in the season-opening BMW Australian PGA Championship. 

Penge is one of seven players who won dual membership with the PGA TOUR at the end of last season to tee it up, joined by Laurie Canter, Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, John Parry, Haotong Li and Jordan Smith. Of the 66 players in the field, 58 have won the DP World Tour.

Home favourites out to shine

Over the 44 years since its inaugural edition, six South Africans have won the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Three-time winner Ernie Els is the most successful, while Branden Grace was the most recent after claiming the title while it was a Rolex Series event in 2017. 

This week, 13 home hopes are out to join that list. Thriston Lawrence - a five-time DP World Tour winner - is the top-ranked South African, with PGA TOUR winner Aldrich Potgieter and tournament invitees Garrick Higgo and Christiaan Bezuidenhout also part of the home challenge. 

Jacques Kruyswijk and Dylan Naidoo, both first-time winners on the DP World Tour last season, are both making their Nedbank debuts. Daniel van Tonder, who has regained his DP World Tour playing privileges by graduating back from the HotelPlanner Tour, features too as the winner the 2024/25 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit. 

Yurav Premlall will make his event debut after receiving an invite from Player, with the 22-year-old holding fond memories at the Gary Player Country Club having won the Freddie Tait Cup in 2021 and the Nedbank Junior Challenge at the venue.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Crown Australian Open..Inside the ropes. ..TEE TIMES

 DP World Tour : Crown Australian Open  Tee Times Leaderboard

The DP World Tour continues its double header Down Under with the Crown Australian Open at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Here are your five things to know.

A renowned venue

The DP World Tour visits stunning locations and courses on a regular basis, but some weeks the schedule features stops at venues that deserve extra spotlighting. 

After a 20-year absence, this week sees golf's global Tour return to the renowned Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the fifth time. It previously staged the Heineken Classic for four consecutive years between 2002-2005. 

This is the 17th time the men's Crown Australian Open - co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR of Australasia since 2022 - has been held at the venue and the first since since 1991. This week, players will compete over the Composite Course. Royal Melbourne was most recently under the international golf microscope when it hosted the Presidents Cup in 2019.

Rory ends dream year Down Under

2025 will forever be the year that Rory McIlroy fulfilled his childhood dream - to win all four Major Championships. At his 17th attempt, the Northern Irishman won the Masters Tournament to become just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam and first since Tiger Woods in 2020. 

Prior to claiming the Green Jacket, he had already won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and THE PLAYERS Championship on the PGA TOUR earlier in the year. After jumping to the top of the Race to Dubai Rankings with his Augusta National triumph, McIlroy added a second DP World Tour title of the campaign in dramatic fashion at the Amgen Irish Open, before going on to hold off Marco Penge to win the Harry Vardon Trophy for a seventh time as he finished runner-up to Matt Fitzpatrick at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship. 

Now, the five-time Major champion makes the first of a two-year commitment to play at the Crown Australian Open on the Melbourne Sandbelt. The last time the 36-year-old appeared at the national open was in 2014, the year after he beat home favourite Adam Scott by one stroke to win the Stonehaven Cup.

Inside the field

This year sees the Crown Australian Open move away from its previous combined event, where the women's edition and Australian All Abilities Championship shared the stage with the men's national open. 

McIlroy may be the headline name, but there are plenty of other draw cards for the home crowds. Among those are Major champions Adam Scott, Cam Smith and Geoff Ogilvy. Min Woo Lee draws strong support too, while fellow Antipodeans Ryan Fox, Daniel Hillier and Kazuma Kobori will be out to impress. 

There is a strong international presence, with South Korea's Si Woo Kim, Mexico's Carlos Ortiz and Japan's Ryo Hisatsune among those to receive an invite. Chile's Joaquin Niemann and Mexico's Abraham Ancer are both past champions and teeing it up. American Charley Hoffman makes his first start of the season, having taken up the option of membership for players who finished 101-200 in the final 2025 FedEx Cup Rankings. 

Twelve of last season's HotelPlanner Tour graduates take their place in the field, while 17 of this year's Qualifying School graduates tee it up including Canada's Aaron Cockerill who finished T2.

Major spots up for grabs

Following a new exemption criteria announced earlier this year by Augusta National, in an attempt to align with The R&A, the Australian Open is one of six national opens where the winner will be awarded a spot at the Masters in 2026. 

The tournament is also part of The Open Qualifying Series (OQS), with the top three finishers not already exempt securing a spot in the championship at Royal Birkdale next summer.

 Earlier this year, Marco Penge booked his spot at the Masters by winning the Open de España presented by Madrid. Players already exempt for the Masters competing in this week's Crown Australian Open are Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Danny Willett, Ryan Fox, Cam Smith and Carlos Ortiz. 

Of those, McIlroy, Fox, Smith are exempt for The Open as is Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Daniel Hillier, Elvis Smylie and amateur Fifa Laopakdee.

Last time around 2024

In just his second start on the DP World Tour start after coming through all three stages of Qualifying School in 2024, American rookie Ryggs Johnston claimed a three-shot victory at Kingston Heath Golf Club. 

Named after Mel Gibson’s Lethal Weapon character, the then world No 954 emerged from a big pack of home hopes to claim the Stonehaven Cup - becoming the 11th American winner - with a nerveless final-round four-under-par 68. 

By doing so, he secured exempt status for this year's Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where he made the cut on his Major Championship debut. Despite going without a top 20 after his triumph, he managed to just qualify for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship - the opening event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs and the penultimate event of the 2025 Race to Dubai campaign. 

Johnston has opted not to defend his title and instead he is in the field for this week's Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player in South Africa.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)