Alex Noren posted a closing 63 to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player by six shots and claim his fourth European Tour victory of the season 12 months ago.
The Swede carded an eagle, eight birdies and a solitary bogey to finish the week on 14 under par as Jeunghun Wang, who held a three-shot lead on Saturday night, finished six shots behind Noren in second.
Ricardo Gouveia, Alejandro Cañizares, Victor Dubuisson, home favourite Branden Grace and Andy Sullivan were a further shot off the pace at seven under par.
After stunning victories at the Scottish Open, Omega European Masters, and British Masters supported by Sky Sports in the 2016 season, Noren capped off his incredible run of form with his fourth European Tour win of the year, and the eighth European Tour title of his career.
The Field
Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood will look to add more points to his tally this week as the three-time European Tour winner travels to Sun City just 134, 839 points clear of his closest rival in Justin Rose.
Fleetwood closed with a round of 68 to finish ten shots back in a share of 23rd place last week, with the 2017 Race to Dubai now poised for a fascinating finale after Rose’s back-to-back victories in China and Turkey.
Defending champion Noren - a Rolex Series winner already this year at the BMW PGA Championship – adds to the star-studded field in South Africa which includes players currently in fifth to ninth position in the Race to Dubai Rankings - Tyrrell Hatton, Ross Fisher, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Noren himself and Francesco Molinari.
Padraig Harrington finished outright fourth last week in Turkey for his best result of the 2017 season and joins a group of four Major winners in the field for the US$7.5 million tournament with Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open Championship), Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters) and Martin Kaymer (2010 US PGA Championship and 2014 US Open).
The Course
Opened in 1979, the golf course at the Gary Player Country Club is the third longest course in European Tour history, stretching a massive 7,831 yards and has been the home of the Nedbank Golf Challenge since 1981.
The layout is famed for its length and dramatic backdrops of the Pilanesberg Mountains, with indigenous vegetation that flanks the fairways.
The Sun City venue also played host to European Tour competition prior to the Nedbank Golf Challenge with the Dimension Data Pro-Am taking place from 1996-1997, won by Mark McNulty (1996) and Nick Price (1997)
Did you know?
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge became part of the European Tour International Schedule for the first time at the beginning of the 2014 season. The event became the 11th different European Tour event to be staged in South Africa
• The event itself started in 1981 and, prior to becoming a European Tour-sanctioned tournament, featured a much smaller field. In its first year it had a field of just five – Seve Ballesteros, Johnny Miller (who won that year), Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino – and the field size often changed throughout the tournament’s early history
• The Nedbank Golf Challenge became part of the European Tour’s Rolex Series for the first time this year
• Alex Noren’s victory at the Nedbank Golf Challenge last year was the last of four wins in an incredible 2016 season for the Swede, and moved him from 17th position in the Official World Ranking to ninth – the first time he had ever ranked in the top ten
• Noren’s six-shot victory and 14 under par total were new records for the event since it became a European Tour event
• Three players have won the event on three or more occasions: David Frost (1989, 1990, 1992), Nick Price (1993, 1994, 1997, 1998) and Ernie Els (1999, 2000, 2002). Aiming to join that list this year will be two-time winner Lee Westwood (2010, 2011)
• Els holds the tournament scoring record with a total of 263 (-25) in 1999
• There have been 15 different Major Champions who have their names etched on the roll of honour – Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Raymond Floyd, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Martin Kaymer, Bernhard Langer, Johnny Miller, Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett and Ian Woosnam
• 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 in the USA, 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
