The new DP World Tour season continues with two tournaments this week and we are going to focus our attention on the one in South Africa which is the Nedbank Golf Challenge, an event which is always popular at this time of year.
Johannes Veerman won this tournament a year ago and the American is in the reduced field looking to make a successful defence of the title but some big names are in opposition looking to wrestle the trophy from him.
Recent Winners
2024 – Johannes Veerman
2023 – Max Homa
2022 – Tommy Fleetwood
2019 – Tommy Fleetwood
2018 – Lee Westwood
2017 – Branden Grace
2016 – Alex Noren
2015 – Marc Leishman
2014 – Danny Willett
2013 – Thomas Bjorn
The Course
The famous Gary Player Country Club hosts the tournament as ever this week. The Sun City track is a bit of a brute given that it is a par 72 which measures no less than 7,885 yards. That sounds pretty serious but we are at altitude this week so although the course is long it never plays to that sort of yardage, especially with conditions being firm and fast as always.
The course plays pretty tight and despite its long yardage it is accuracy which is the more important, especially greens in regulation. The greens here have plenty of slopes and false fronts so pinpoint iron play rarely goes unrewarded. Clearly it is easier to hit precise iron shots from the fairway so there is a real emphasis on the tee to green game. A warm putter is never a bad thing around here either.
The Field
This is a really good field for what is just a slightly better than regular DP World Tour event in terms of the rewards on offer. We have two members of the top 50 in the world rankings here in Viktor Hovland and Marco Penge with the latter getting ready to begin duel membership of this tour and the PGA one. The defending champion Johannes Veerman is here too and any field is always boosted when the current title holder returns to attempt to defend the crown.
A whole bunch of other top 100 golfers in the world rankings are here too. They include PGA Tour event winners Nick Taylor and Thomas Detry while Laurie Canter has a tee time too ahead of his move back to LIV Golf. Thriston Lawrence, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Aldrich Potgieter and Garrick Higgo will be looking to lead the home charge this week while others to keep an eye out for includes Tom McGibbin, Haotong Li and Jordan Smith.
Market Leaders
Viktor Hovland is the standout player in the field this week and the Ryder Cup star is no bigger than 8/1 to win the tournament. There is a belief that this course needs a couple of goes before players are comfortable on it so this being the debut for the Norwegian would be a negative. You can flip that around though when you look at the quality of the long game of Hovland. On a beast of a track from tee-to-green, there won’t be many hitting the ball better than him. I wouldn’t put anyone off but I’m not a fan of single figure prices.
Marco Penge opened up the new season with a creditable showing in Australia last week and he will arrive in Sun City as a 12/1 second favourite to win the tournament. Penge is one of the longest hitters in the game so that is a massive box ticked for him but he is also another who is on debut here which might go against him. The other thing to consider is all the jet setting he has been doing in recent weeks. I’m a big Penge fan but there are enough reasons to give him a miss this week.
The home ace Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the third favourite to win the tournament at 14/1 here. The first issue would be whether he is long enough off the tee to be competitive in this company. There is no doubting that the rest of his game is certainly good enough though. Length hasn’t been an issue for him in the last two goes around here because he has finished fifth and sixth in those events. That would put him a little higher up the shortlists but he still feels short to me.
Another home player Garrick Higgo and Thorbjorn Olesen come next in the betting at 16/1 and both will fancy their chances of going well here. Higgo ticks a lot of boxes. He is long off the tee and handy with the rest of the clubs in the bag and ended the PGA Tour year well enough. He is on debut here though which could be a concern. Olesen has been in the top five on his last two trips to this part of the world and remains a danger whenever he tees it up at this level so he can’t be ruled out either. It is 18/1 bar those named.
Main Bets
Laurie Canter concluded the previous DP World Tour season in decent order and he looks a good bet around the 25/1 mark on the enhanced each way offerings to go well here too. He made his debut in the event a year ago so he knows what it is all about now and heads to South Africa off the back of finishing second in the Genesis Championship and third in the DP World Tour Championship in the last six weeks or so. These events are going to gain even more importance to him in the upcoming months as he won’t have many chances to earn world ranking points and qualify for majors now that he is returning to LIV Golf so he should be fully motivated to do well here and I think he’ll go well as a result.
The other main bet for me this week is Aldrich Potgieter, the South African who was the closest challenger to Johannes Veerman here a year ago and who has kicked on and gone very well on the PGA Tour in 2025 to make me think he is a good bet to go one better here. Potgieter won the Rocket Classic in June but it was his playoff loss in the Mexico Open in February which might be more significant because that further shows us that he can deal with high level golf at altitude. Being a South African he will carry extra motivation this week and he showed here a year ago that he can deal with the pressure of the home crowd. He is as long as most in the field and with the rest of his game going well here a year ago I think he’s a big threat here.
Outsiders
Grant Forrest ended up having a good season last term by winning the Nexo Championship on home soil and he has the length that with that confidence of winning behind him should allow him to be competitive around here. It is fair to say he didn’t go that well here a year ago but conditions were quite tough so I’m prepared to give him another go to deliver the goods here. Forrest had a couple of decent spins in the two Rolex Series events in illustrious company to conclude the last term without being anything spectacular but that experience is no bad thing here either. He looks a fair outsider bet to me.
The other bet I’ll go with is Ockie Strydom who could be a bit of a monster price. He has won on the DP World Tour in South Africa when he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship three years ago and he was sixth here last year after opening the tournament with a 67. Things got tougher after that but he held firm to finish high up the field and I think he is worth taking in a small field here. 2025 hasn’t gone to plan hence the price but he put three out of four rounds together in the Stella Artois tournament on the Sunshine Tour a few weeks ago so he might just be starting to come back to form. I’ll pay to see if that is the case.
Tips
Back A.Potgieter to win Nedbank Golf Challenge (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back G.Forrest to win Nedbank Golf Challenge (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back L.Canter to win Nedbank Golf Challenge (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back O.Strydom to win Nedbank Golf Challenge (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
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