by Grant Winter
This was as good as it gets. It was excruciatingly close. The fans were in a frenzy. And perhaps it was the most exciting Million Dollar Challenge ever.
It finally came down to defending champion Nick Price rolling in a pressure-packed 10-footer for birdie at the fifth hole of a sudden death play-off to beat world No 1 Tiger Woods to win the 1998 edition of the Nedbank showpiece.
“I don’t know how we’re ever going to top this one,” said Price after his victory, his third in this event following his record-breaking 1993 effort, when he scored a near-miraculous 24-under-par 264, and his 271 aggregate in 1997.
THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE
In 1998 Price and Woods both totalled 273 – 15 under – with Tiger heroically making birdies at the last two holes of regulation play (knocking in a 15-footer at 17 and chipping in at 18 from about 20 feet) to take play into extra time amid thunderous applause from the massive gallery who had gathered in their tens of thousands to watch the great Woods in his one and only appearance at Sun City.
With tension mounting all the time, the two players then halved the first four holes (16, 17, 18 and then back to 16) of the play-off, before Price dropped his Million Dollar putt at the 17th for birdie and victory.
Justin Leonard (274), Lee Westwood (276) and Mark O’Meara (276), who all had turns at the top of the leaderboard, finished third and joint fourth respectively with Ernie Els and Bernhard Langer tied sixth on 280.
"What a day this was!” Price exclaimed. “You could not have scripted it better. Both Tiger and I played well. Then the other guys fell out of the race. Going down 16 I knew it was going to be one of the two of us. That he managed to birdie 17 and 18 speaks volumes for him. He has the knack of doing the big thing when it counts.”
CLOSELY-CONTESTED TOURNAMENT
Twelve months earlier the 1997 Nedbank was described as the Million Dollar to end all Million Dollars. That was when Price holed a 12-footer at the last to beat Davis Love and a charging Els by one. But this one was even better. Price, four behind overnight leader Westwood at the start of the final round, birdied six holes in a row from the ninth to seemingly take charge of a closely-contested tournament.
But then Tiger, decked out in a bright red shirt – his trademark final round apparel – made those dramatic birdies at 17 and 18. “I had to make them. It was not as if I had any choice,” said the American, 22 years old at the time, who was hero-worshipped all week by the young fans.
I have a sense of achievement at coming here for the first time and contending. And I was proud of the way I played the first play-off hole. I missed the green and my ball landed in fluffy kikuyu behind the bunker. I played a very good flop shot from there to save par. But there is also a sense of failure for me. You can’t beat a guy of Nick’s calibre in a play-off if you don’t drop any birdie putts, and I didn't.”
Price missed a birdie putt of about eight feet at the fourth extra hole (the 16th). “I was irritated by that and the winning putt was actually a harder one,” he said at the time. “But I read it well and in it went.
LIKE ROLL OF DICE
Play-offs are like a roll of the dice but, yes, it was special to beat Tiger. He’s a phenomenon. He mishits his drives and he still smacks it 30 yards past me. I had a flawless back nine, and so did he. We inspired each other. We fed off each other.
“It was punch and counter-punch. Tiger is 22, 19 years younger than me, and his nerves aren’t frayed like mine. And whereas I’ve got a great future behind me (Price, of course, was himself world No 1 a few years earlier in the 1990s), he’s got a great future ahead of him!” grinned the genial Zimbabwean.
"Right now, though, victory is very sweet. It’s very difficult for one player to completely dominate golf. Tiger is perhaps the one guy who can do it. I think nobody will beat this kid going forward." And how true that statement turned out to be!
Price’s caddie for virtually all his wins in Southern Africa was also a Tiger, Tiger Lekhulene, now in his late 60s. The looper's favourite memory of his time with Price was the 1998 play-off. “When we reached the last hole on the Sunday,” he recalls, “Tiger was just off the green with his second. Nick tapped me with his putter and said, ‘Watch, he’ll hole this chip’. And he did to force the play-off. Then we won the play-off and the people were going crazy.”
Before round one Lekhulene raised a laugh when he was introduced to Woods. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “But just remember I’m the original Tiger!”
For now though, roll on the 2025 Nedbank Golf Challenge...