Hopefully Hovland joins the Nedbank Challenge field
IT WOULD be the cherry on the top if the DP World Tour announces later today that Viktor Hovland, who has been in sublime form, will participate in the 2023 Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City from November 9-12.
With Africa’s Major having secured two former Major champions in Justin Rose and Justin Thomas, plus defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, and a host of top stars for the $6 million event, the confirmation of Hovland, who won the PGA Tour’s Fedexcup on Sunday, would not only boost ticket sales but it would give the Nedbank Golf Challenge the biggest boost since the inception of the event more than 40 years ago.
This season, Hovland has won the Memorial Tournament in a playoff – beating Denny Mccarthy with a par at the first hole – the BMW Championship by two strokes and the Tour Championship by five strokes. He will represent Europe at the Ryder Cup later this month.
Hovland has a total of eight wins on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour – six in the US and two in Europe. He was runner-up at this year’s PGA Championship, tied for seventh at The Masters at Augusta and tied for 12th at the US Open Championship.
The Norwegian went into the weekend’s Fedexcup on eightunder-par – two shots behind Scottie Scheffler – and ended up winning with a score of 27-under-par, five strokes ahead of Xander Schaufele.
It was an amazing four days of golf for Hovland as he signed for 68 in the opening round, followed it up with a 64 in round two and then a 66 in the third round. He then delivered a sublime display with a 63 – the lowest final round score for a Tour Championship winner – on Sunday to be crowned champion.
If the 25-year-old Oslo-born Hovland does arrive in Sun City, he would be joined not only by the likes of Rose, Thomas, a two-time Major champion who will be making his debut at Sun City, and Fleetwood, who will be out to make it a hat-trick of wins, but some of the best from Europe, and South Africa’s Ockie Strydom, winner of the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy last season.
Strydom had an outstanding season, winning the co-sanctioned DP World Tour event at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in Malelane and the Singapore Classic.
The Nedbank Golf Championship was first played in 1981 and the list of winners includes South African golf icon Ernie Els – a threetime winner – the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and Major champions Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sir Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Danny Willett.
The 2023 Nedbank Golf Challenge is, once again, the penultimate event before the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.