Sun City – Ernie Els will make a welcome return to the Nedbank Golf Challenge from December 3-6, according to a video clip screened at the conclusion last night of the Sanlam Cancer Challenge charity tournament.
In the video Els is quoted as saying he will be back to again take part in ‘Africa’s Major’. And the presence of the three-time winner of the tournament – he was champion in 1999, 2000 and 2002 – will ensure that the fans will turn out in their numbers for the 30-man shoot-out over the iconic Gary Player Country Club course.
Els, who turned 46 four days ago, has been absent from the Nedbank Challenge in recent years but him teeing it up is bound to swell the number of people coming through the gates.
The Big Easy has won 70 times around the world, the victories including two US Opens and two Open Championships.
He hasn’t had the best of seasons in 2015, although to his credit he did make the cut in all four Majors, with two top 25s as he shared 22nd place in the Masters and 25th spot in the PGA Championship. He also contended in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland earlier this month before a pair of double-bogeys on the Old Course at St Andrews, saw him slip back into a tie for 27th place.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, the former world No1, defending champion Danny Willett of England and SA’s Thomas Aiken – who earns a place for topping the 2014 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit – have all been confirmed for the NGC, while it makes perfect sense that Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, who have both played so well in 2015, particularly in the Majors and the Presidents Cup, will join the line-up.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Tyrone Van Aswegen got out his hospital bed to finish in a tie for third in the PGA Tour’s Frys.com Open on Sunday.
The 33-year-old had earlier been checked into a Napa hospital where he was given two bags of IV fluids for severe dehydration and vertigo. He was still in a hospital bed an hour before his tee time, and said he was lucky that the tee times were pushed back by 20 minutes because of fog.
“I was so dizzy the whole round. Putting was the most difficult for me,” said Van Aswegan, who carded four sub-70 rounds for a 274 total to finish just one back of winner Emiliano Grillo of Argentina.
The Frys.com Open forms part of the 2016 PGA Tour and Charl Schwartzel also had a good start to the new season, sharing sixth place on 276.
Grillo won the title on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off with American Kevin Na. It was the rookie’s first PGA Tour title. - The Star