DP World Tour : Nedbank Golf Challenge Leaderboard Tee Times
Round 1 is well underway in hot sticky weather, Sun City, RSA on the Gary Player GC at this years Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Mr Player who was born November 1, 1935 celebrating his 90th season this week.
Canada's Nick Taylor is in this 66 man invitational field, E thru 12 holes, the leader at -7 thru 15, veteran Englishman Marcus Armitage.
...more to follow
Bryan Angus
DP World Tour : Crown Australian Open Leaderboard Tee Times
Elvis Smylie, Ryan Fox and Carlos Ortiz shared a two-shot lead after mastering tricky, windy conditions on day one of the Crown Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
There has been much excitement about the national open making a return to one of the world’s most revered layouts for the first time in 34 years but it was the weather rather than the Composite Course that stole the show in round one.
And it was Smylie, Fox and Ortiz who tackled them best, carding rounds of 65 to get to -6 and lead the way from Cameron Adam 67, Clement Charmasson 67 and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen 67 -4
Smylie, a winner on home soil during last season’s Opening Swing at the BMW Australian PGA Championship overcame an opening bogey with seven birdies and he was the man to set the early target.
Kiwi Fox then made eight birdies to join him at the summit before Mexico’s Ortiz eagled the 17th to catapult himself to the top of the leaderboard.
Smylie finished the 2025 Race to Dubai as the top-ranked Australian and continued to star on home soil after narrowly missing out on dual membership with the PGA TOUR.
A lucky bounce on the first was followed by another gain on the third, with a lengthy putt on the seventh extending his lead and a birdie on the eighth giving him some breathing room.
“It was really solid round, 65 round around Royal Melbourne, the first round of an Aussie Open would be great,” he said.
“I don’t think I need to start pushing and fighting the wind. I think like I did today, just kind of take your moments, knowing when to attack the flags and when to pull back.
"Obviously I’m not really sure what the conditions are going to be the next three days, but everyone’s in the same boat and just try and keep doing what I’m doing.”
Fox made his mark on the international stage in 2025 with two wins on the PGA TOUR including the RBC Canadian Open, adding to his four so far on the DP World Tour.
“I would've taken even par today,” he said. “This golf course is tricky enough. There's obviously a lot of trouble, especially with all the crosswinds. It's pretty wide off the tee for the most part, if you hit the right club, but with all the crosswinds, you can get yourself in a lot of trouble.
“So I was very happy I managed to stay away from all the bad stuff today and holed a couple of putts early and sort of kept me on my way and hung on through the middle, through the really tough stretch of holes there, and then took advantage of the par fives and a couple of good wedge shots coming home.”
Last week’s top-25 in Brisbane came on Ortiz’s first start in a regular DP World Tour event and he has brought his momentum south, adding six birdies and two bogeys to his eagle.
"You had to respect the golf course and I think I did a great job on that," he said. "We planned it around, we just tried to put in play, be smart, hit greens, and we were lucky enough to make some good putts."
Neergaard-Petersen had a breakout 2025 as he earned dual membership but he is still searching for a first DP World Tour win and an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys gave him a solid start -4 67.
England’s Eddie Pepperell is back on Tour via the HotelPlanner Tour and he fired a -3 68 to sit three back alongside Australian trio Corey Lamb, Stephen Leaney and Wade Ormsby and Kiwi Daniel Hillier.
South African Michael Hollick made the third hole-in-one of the season on the seventh to sit in a 14-strong group at -2, three clear of Masters champion Rory McIlroy T57 +1 72 who said he was happy to "limit the damage" as Royal Melbourne bared its teeth, as the beauty became a beast as high winds made scoring very difficult in Victoria.
And with that in mind McIlroy, who is seeking an "amazing" end to the year which saw him become a Grand Slam champion, was not displeased with an opening 72.
"It's tricky. Very, very tricky," he said. "Greens are getting firm. It was a good thing they didn't cut them today, it would've been unplayable.
"I felt like I could have shot under par or shot something in the 60s but it doesn't look like anyone's going to get too far away today.
"So I limited the damage and hopefully conditions are a little better over the next few days and could make a run.
"I think the putter was hard and then it's just hard to get the ball close.
"When you can't get it that close and then you're just trying to two-putt those sort of longer putts, it's hard to make up any ground.
McIlroy was out at 7.05am in a stellar group with local heroes Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott and despite the hour, the fairways were lined with spectators.
"I made enough birdies, but I just need to limit the mistakes a little bit but it felt OK. It was good to get one round done and not feel like I'm too far back. It's amazing. I think the welcome has been so warm and yeah, it's been a pleasure to be here and hopefully I could just play a little bit better over the next three days."
EDIT >>> Canada's Aaron Cockerill back on DP World Tour for his 5th straight year after T2 at the Final Stage Q School, MC last week at the Aussie PGA, and struggled in the conditions on his front nine +4 38, however he settled in coming in with 8 pars, a birdie -1 36 T105 74 +3.
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Bryan Angus (edit)
DP World Tour : Nedbank Golf Challenge
Adam Scott admits winning the Crown Australian Open would mean that little bit more this week as his national open returns to one of golf’s most storied venues for the first time in 34 years.
The former World Number One is no stranger to winning the event or triumphing at Royal Melbourne, having lifted the trophy in 2009 at New South Wales Golf Club and won the World Cup of Golf over this week’s composite layout alongside Jason Day in 2013.
And he is excited about having the opportunity to combine the two this week and become the first home winner since 2019.
"I think winning the Aussie Open at Royal Melbourne has one of those asterisks next to it where it's just that little bit more meaningful,” he said.
“And it's nothing against anywhere else but just the fact we haven't played a national open here since 1991 is going to make this a really special one and for every Aussie golfer, but I think also for anyone who's here, if they were to win, it's kind of a feather in the cap. It's something to be incredibly proud of.
“It's kind of one of those things that I grew up dreaming about really and it just for whatever reason hasn't happened in my career yet but we have been lucky enough to play quite a few tournaments here at Royal Melbourne and I think having the national championship here is extra special this week with a great field.
“So I'm very excited about the opportunity of being out there and trying to win another Aussie Open."
Scott’s connection to Royal Melbourne goes deeper than just his appearances, which include that World Cup win along with two Presidents Cups and three Heineken Classics.
He is also an honorary life member after his Masters victory in 2013 and his clubs from that week take pride of place on display in the clubhouse.
But perhaps the greatest connection he has is from when he was a child, watching the likes of Greg Norman and Wayne ‘Radar’ Riley hoist the Stonehaven Cup.
“When you're growing up watching great events, obviously the Majors come to mind but as a young Aussie kid watching the Aussie Open here, I remember Radar holing the putt,” he said.
“Watching an Aussie Open down the road at Kingston Heath, these really special venues with great champions, obviously Greg winning all of them, was something that you dreamt of doing.
“We have had other events here in my career but we haven't had the Aussie Open here so this is a chance for me to step back and remember how it felt as that little kid watching these great players play the national championship on one of the greatest courses in the world.”
Scott arrives off the back of a top ten at the BMW PGA Australian Championship but that was his first of the calendar year.
He went into the final event of his 2025 DP World Tour season in a battle to keep his card but is confident that not just his ability but his experience can see him continue his good start to the 2026 Race to Dubai.
“It feels pretty good,” he said of his game. “There was lots of good stuff. A couple of mistakes early in the week probably cost me up there, but all good things.
“I think hopefully some of my experience of playing around here in championship conditions helps me out and a couple of less mistakes and I might be able to hang in there and have a crack at this thing.
“I think the sandbelt, the design style and the challenges have elements of lots of different kinds of golf, certainly some lengthy elements.
“Strategy is much more a part of sandbelt golf and most weeks of the year strategy is very simple these days. There are a lot more options here and that makes it difficult for pros because we have to choose one and the guy who can commit the best this week is probably going to do well.
“I think it's probably a week where you just need to limit the mistakes, but given the level of play these days, you're still going to have to make a lot of birdies, so you're just going to have to play some good golf and limit the mistakes.
“I think the easiest thing to do is shoot yourself out of tournaments at golf courses like this and hopefully that's where my experience can kind of kick in and keep me in it.
"And then when you're coming down the stretch, you have to take your chances when you can get them, and for me at this point, if I can get myself to that position coming down the stretch, I have nothing to lose.”
As a Masters Champion, former World Number One and veteran of 593 ranking worldwide starts with 29 wins, Scott certainly does not need to polish up his CV any further in his 46th year.
But he revealed he has not got close to all the ambitions he set himself as a child and that, along with a Presidents Cup in 2026, is what keeps his fire burning.
“I set pretty high goals when I was a kid I think and I'm far from living up to many of them, but I'd like to notch off a few more of them,” he said.
“If I can tick off a few more of them before I'm not playing on Tour anymore, I don't know when that is, but I still feel like the game is good enough to do it.
“The stats and all the things we kind of measure by, it's there. I spoke about it a little bit last week: if I can just narrow my focus a little bit and sharpen it up to winning events and get back to winning some events, I think there are some big ones in me still.
"So really, it's probably I set unrealistic goals maybe when I was a kid and still chasing them.”
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Bryan Angus (edit)
DP World Tour : Nedbank Challenge in honour of Gary Player..
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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Bryan Angus (edit)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Bryan Angus (edit)
DP World Tour : BMW Australian PGA Championship Leaderboard Tee Times
David Puig followed in the footsteps of European golf great Seve Ballesteros as he became the second Spanish winner of the BMW Australian PGA Championship with a stunning two-shot victory.
The 23 year-old fired a flawless -6 66 on Sunday to finish the tournament on -18 and secure his maiden DP World Tour title on his 15th start.
Puig began the day in a three-way tie for the lead but soon found himself three clear at the summit after reeling off a hat-trick of birdies at the second, third and fourth.
He then kept the chasing pack at bay by picking up further shots at the eighth and 13th before parring his way home to become the first winner of the 2026 DP World Tour season.
Wenyi Ding finished alone in second on 16 under after making seven birdies and two bogeys in his closing 66, with Marc Leishman and Nick Voke another shot back.
A late charge from Ding cut Puig's lead to two in the closing stages and he produced a nerveless par save on the 16th to remain in control before closing with successive pars to seal victory.
After emulating Ballesteros, who won this event at Royal Melbourne in 1981, Puig said: "It feels unbelievable, especially winning here in Australia.
"They have awesome golf so I'm really excited and happy. "I was definitely nervous, but I think I kind of kept my composure really well. Obviously that start helped a lot.
"I want to thank my fiancée. She's been with me throughout the last seven years. She's incredible. Also my parents and her family.
"I think we're a really close group. We get along really well. It's just amazing the support I get."
Puig added: "Obviously my name being with Seve’s name as the only two Spaniards to have won this event makes it even more special. Really happy."
edit>>> Canadian rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju had a solid T25 debut 69 69 69 69 -8
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Bryan Angus (edit)
