DID YOU KNOW - NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE HOSTED BY GARY PLAYER
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge became part of the European Tour International Schedule for the first time for the 2014 season. (The event was first played in 1981 and won by Johnny Miller). At the beginning of the 2014 season, the event was the 11th different European Tour event to be staged in South Africa.
• The Nebank Golf Challenge became part of the European Tour’s Final Series for the first time this year.
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge is being played twice in the 2016 European Tour season. Other events to be played twice in the same season are: Volvo China Open (2006), UBS Hong Kong Open (2009), Australian Masters (2009), HSBC Champions (2009, was not a WGC in the first playing) and SA Open (2011).
• Three players have won the event on three occasions. They are: David Frost, Nick Price and Ernie Els. The South African holds the tournament scoring record with 263 (-25) back in 1999.
• There have been 13 different Major Champions who have their names etched on the roll of honour.
• The Gary Player Country Club is the third longest course in European Tour history, at 7,831 yards. In second, 18 yards longer than Sun City is the Ritz-Carlton Golf ,venue for the WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship, between 2009-2011. The longest is another South African course, the Copperleaf Golf & Country Estate, where the 2014 Tshwane Open was played, measuring 7,964 yards.
• The Sun City venue also played host to European Tour competition prior to the Nedbank Golf Challenge. In 1996-1997 the Dimension Data Pro-Am took place and won by Mark McNulty (1996) and Nick Price (1997).
