The European Tour lands in South Africa this week for the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Golfers will compete at the Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, a small farming town in the northeast part of the country.
Pablo Larrazábal emerged victorious at last year’s tournament. The 37-year old Spaniard has a total of five international wins to his credit, and he will set out to defend his title alongside Austria’s Matthias Schwab and South Africa’s own Daniel van Tonder.
Meanwhile, Joachim B. Hansen won the most recent Euro Tour event, carding 19-under par at the Joburg Open to best Wilco Nienaber by two strokes. After grabbing his first win on tour, the 30-year old Dane will look to keep it rolling alongside England’s Eddie Pepperrell and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
In fact, the Alfred Dunhill Championship will feature a bevy of local talent, including Dean Burmester, George Coetzee and last week’s runner-up Nienaber in addition to van Tonder and Bezuidenhout. Yet, the real story may be who is missing. Louis Oosthuizen and Erik van Rooyen are the two highest-ranked South Africans in the Race to Dubai (at No. 7 and No. 12 respectively), but neither are taking the field.
Also absent are Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa and Lee Westwood — the Race to Dubai’s top four athletes.
The Alfred Dunhill Championship begins Thursday.
