The Road to Mallorca arrives in Port Elizabeth this week for the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship, the final of four co-sanctioned tournaments between the European Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour. Humewood Golf Club plays host and here’s everything you need to know for the week ahead…
Humewood Golf Club
Humewood GC is called the ‘only true links in Africa’ for a reason. It’s designer, Colonel SV Hotchkin, drew inspiration from the Old Course at St Andrews when creating the course. The legendary South African Bobby Locke, four-time winner of The Open Championship regarded Humewood as one of the best courses he ever played. Located in the sand dunes of Algoa Bay, on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth and with vast coastal bush surrounding the course, Humewood is a classic British links at the edge of the African continent.
Tournament Pedigree
This week’s event gives the current generation of tour pros a chance to test themselves at Humewood, a course which has hosted several tournaments throughout its history, including the South African Open on five occasions. Four-time major winner Ernie Els won the last National Open held at the links in 2006 with an impressive score of 24 under par. If high winds come into play, bettering Els’s score this week could prove difficult.
Last event of African Swing
South Africa has played host to the start of the Challenge Tour season for the past three years and the 2023 Road to Mallorca will bid a fond farewell to the Rainbow Nation after this week’s event, with a month’s pause before the Duncan Taylor Black Ball Challenge in Bangalore, India. The Nelson Mandela Bay Championship is the last of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour this season, with the field looking to build momentum before the season moves to India and the Middle East it promises to be an interesting week.
