South African Olympic duo to play in Nedbank Golf Challenge

The South African Olympic duo of Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Erik van Rooyen have confirmed their participation in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player at Sun City from 5-8 December, 2024.

Bezuidenhout and Van Rooyen will join defending champion Max Homa at the Gary Player Country Club as they contend for ‘Africa’s Major’, which forms part of the 2025 Race to Dubai in partnership with Nedbank and Sun International.

The South Africans will head to Sun City fresh from representing their country at the Paris Olympics, and both will also be making their third appearances in a tournament that last produced a home winner in 2017 with Branden Grace.

Bezuidenhout returns to Sun City with a top finish of tied fifth in the 2022 Nedbank Golf Challenge. He also returns to a Gary Player Country Club golf course where he won the South African Open in 2020 during a breakthrough season on the DP World Tour.

“I was five years old when I first came and watched the Nedbank Golf Challenge with my family. I watched the practice rounds, the players at the short game area, on the golf course – everything. It was always a dream for me to play in the Nedbank Golf Challenge,” said Bezuidenhout.

“There are some very good names on the trophy. To be able to have a chance to put my name on there is always a very special opportunity.”

TWO-TIME PGA TOUR CHAMP VAN ROOYEN

Van Rooyen’s best performance to date in the Nedbank Golf Challenge is tied 30th in 2019, and he returns as a two-time winner on the PGA Tour.

“It’s always a privilege to be able to compete in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in front of my home fans and in a tournament that has such a proud history and which means so much to us as South African golfers,” said Van Rooyen.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge has been a highlight of the South African sporting calendar since its first edition in 1981 and is held in honour of South African sporting legend and nine-time Major champion Gary Player, who has been associated with the event since it’s inauguration more than 40 years ago.

Last year Homa joined a glittering list of Nedbank Golf Challenge winners as he became the first American winner since Jim Furyk triumphed in back-to-back years in 2005 and 2006.

European Ryder Cup star Tommy Fleetwood enjoyed wins in 2019 and 2022, joining stars such as South African golfing icon Ernie Els – a three-time winner - the legendary Seve Ballesteros and Major champions Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sir Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Danny Willett.