Stenson says ‘yes’ to Africa’s Major

THE Nedbank Golf Challenge has always been a star-studded event, but this year it will reach new heights.

Already it is shaping up to be a tournament not to be missed. That much is clear from the players who have signed up to take part in “Africa’s Major” at Sun City in November.

Former champion and second on the Race to Dubai list, Henrik Stenson, was announced yesterday as a certainty for the November 10-13 event, a tournament that is now part of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai Finals Series.

Stenson will arrive at Sun City as the current British Open champion, and knowing that he got the better of the field in 2008.

Defending champion Marc Leishman of Australia, who won by six strokes last December, will be back to give it another crack at the Gary Player-designed course, while also in the field will be South Africans Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and George Coetzee. The elite 72-man field will compete for $7 million (about R95 million) as the European Tour’s best players vie to be crowned the No 1 player the following week at the DP World Championship in Dubai.

Other notable appearances in the first wave of star names released by tournament organisers yesterday include European Ryder Cup players Rafa Cabrera Bello, Thomas Pieters, Andy Sullivan and Chris Wood, who will join Stenson as part of Darren Clarke’s European team heading to Hazeltine in Chaska, Minnesota, to defend the Ryder Cup against the US next week.

Stenson said he was looking forward to returning to Africa’s Major: “The Nedbank Golf Challenge is one of those tournaments which grabs the attention at the end of the year, and now that it is part of the Race to Dubai’s Final Series it has taken another step up in terms of importance. Sun City is such a great resort, it’s a week I really enjoy at the end of the season.

“I am second on the Race to Dubai, and if I can win the Nedbank Challenge I will have a great chance to finish the season as No 1, which would be the perfect way to end what has obviously been a very special year for me.

“I love the course at the Gary Player Country Club and know what it takes to win a round there,” said Stenson, who also won the Olympic silver medal in August.