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South Africa’s Christiaan Burke and Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra took advantage of a receptive East Course at Royal Johannesburg and signed for rounds of 63 to lead the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Thursday.

They head the field on nine under par and are one stroke clear of the South African duo of former Alfred Dunhill Championship winner Brandon Stone and Thriston Lawrence.

The first round produced a tantalising leaderboard that also includes another former champion in Branden Grace just two strokes off the lead, and a group of former champions in Louis Oosthuizen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Shaun Norris, Marcel Siem and Pablo Larrazabal joining Aldrich Potgieter and Dean Burmester four shots behind the leaders.

It’s the kind of quality leaderboard that, as well as he played with an opening stretch of six consecutive birdies and a closing eagle, sent Burke straight to the driving range after his round.

“My ball striking wasn’t there at all today so that’s why I needed some range work, but I’ve never seen my putter this hot,” said Burke. “I had a good start and only figured out after the seventh hole that I made six birdies in a row. Then I had back-to-back bogeys on 15 and 16 and my caddie said just finish strong. So we did with a birdie and an eagle. I like this golf course. I play here a lot and it suits my game.”

His co-leader Chacarra was just as pleased with his start.

“I played really good golf. I’ve been playing well but the score hasn’t been there. But I trusted the plan I have with my caddie and I think we did a tremendous job. The course is playing a little easier being so soft, but you still have to hit the shots out there. With the soft greens you can attack a little more than you normally would.”

Just one stroke behind them, both Stone and Lawrence didn’t drop a single shot. Stone in particular was delighted with his putting performance as he chases a second Alfred Dunhill Championship title.

“That was amazing. It’s the first time my putter’s worked in about 18 months to two years. Hopefully that continues,” Stone said.

“The goal for me was to go out and play with a bit more freedom and trust my natural ability, and almost channel that inner child that used to play this course when I was a kid.”

Tickets available to purchase here: Alfred Dunhill Championship

Louis Oosthuizen is looking forward to rekindling his memories of a Royal Johannesburg East Course which he played early in his career before he became a Major champion, and where he starts his quest for a second Alfred Dunhill Championship title in Thursday’s first round.

“I do like this golf course and it’s just nice being back in Johannesburg and playing where the golf ball goes a bit further. I’m looking forward to the week. It’s nice being back on a golf course I played a long time ago,” said the 2023 winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

It may have been a long time ago, but Oosthuizen’s performance back then should serve as a warning to the rest of the field this week as the South African seeks to become only the third player in Alfred Dunhill Championship history to win multiple titles.

In a stretch of professional tournaments he played here in 2007, 2009 and 2010 – the year he won The Open – Oosthuizen finished tied 19^th, tied 10^th and tied 12^th respectively.

The golf course is now considerably longer than he remembers it, especially with the par-five first hole playing as a strong par four this week. All of which has convinced Oosthuizen about what he’d like for a Christmas present.

“I’d like about 20 more yards on my driver,” he joked.

Dean Burmester is equally excited as he goes in search of a maiden victory in a tournament he desperately wants to win.

“If you look at the list of winners, it’s a really special championship. I would love to add that leopard trophy to my cabinet. I’ve been working really hard to get ready for this week. I’m excited and the game is taking shape again. But I’m also just pleased to be playing in South Africa again. The Sunshine Tour is where we started and it’s important to go back to your roots,” he said.

And Branden Grace, the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Championship winner, is delighted to be back on a golf course where he won his first DP World Tour title in 2012.

“This is where it all kicked off for me. I haven’t been back here in a long time, and I’m excited to go. This golf course gets your attention from the very first hole. It will also play longer than usual in the wet conditions,” he said.

Tickets available to purchase here: Alfred Dunhill Championship

The Alfred Dunhill Championship’s return to Johannesburg for the first time in two decades has been like a trip down memory lane for several stars in this week’s field as they drove through the gates of Royal Johannesburg.

This premier Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament has brought a field which includes an impressive gathering of former Alfred Dunhill Championship winners led by Major champion Louis Oosthuizen.

Many of them have very personal reasons for looking forward to the challenge of the famed East Course, which is ranked within the top three in Gauteng.

Shaun Norris returns as the defending champion after what he described as a career-defining victory in this tournament at Leopard Creek last year, and now playing an East Course he has always enjoyed.

“Winning the Alfred Dunhill Championship last year was massive for me. Every South African wants to win this tournament, and it was a special week for me,” said Norris.

“There’s a little bit of extra emotion in a week when you’re defending a title because you always want to try and defend. It’s also nice to be in Johannesburg and staying at home, so I’m a little bit more relaxed. This has always been a great golf course and as South Africans we all love it. It’s a demanding test.”

Former champions Branden Grace, still the only golfer to have won both the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and Richard Sterne will relish the prospect of returning to an East Course where they’ve both won titles in their careers.

Germany’s Marcel Siem is simply enjoying being back in Johannesburg where in January of 2004 he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship when it was still played in the city of gold before moving to its traditional home of Leopard Creek.

“It feels like I’m defending the title 21 years later. It feels great to be back here. I was still a baby at 24 years old. I remember the playoff with Gregory Havret and Raphael Jacquelin. It was the kickstart to my career. It meant a lot, and all the people in Joburg were so nice to me,” said Siem.

Rising South African star Casey Jarvis is back at the golf course where he achieved the crowning glory of his amateur career in winning the South African Amateur in 2020. He comes into this week in impressive form after winning twice in three weeks on the Sunshine Tour last month.

“I’m feeling very confident. To get the two wins is very special. It’s nice to head into a week like this on a golf course I know very well, and with some confidence,” he said.

Young Spanish sensation Angel Ayora also has fond memories of Alfred Dunhill Championship tournaments in general. He finished tied fifth in last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, and tied fifth in this year’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

“It’s just a special event for me. I love being here in South Africa as well – the people, the food, the golf courses. And the weather. I prefer to play in hot climates. I’m just happy to be here again in this tournament,” he said.

Kristoffer Reitan overcame what he described as “excruciating pressure” to become the first Norwegian winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player at Sun City on Sunday.

Reitan took a five-stroke lead into the final round and withstood strong challenges from South Africa’s Jayden Schaper and England’s Dan Bradbury to win by a single stroke on 17 under par with a closing 72.

Schaper and Bradbury shared second place on 16 under par with respective final rounds of 68 and 66.

“It feels amazing. This is an amazing tournament, an incredible golf course and a great crowd. To win such a huge tournament like this with all the names on this trophy, and to stand alongside Gary Player, I feel very lucky,” Reitan said after the second DP World Tour victory of his career which now ties him with countryman Viktor Hovland as the Norwegian player with the most wins on the DP World Tour.

“But the pressure was excruciating at times, and I also didn’t do myself any favours with some of the positions I put myself in. I’m happy to get it over the line. My swing wasn’t cooperating today which meant it was a 100% mental battle out there. It’s really hard to win a golf tournament and I’m just really happy.”

It was a nervous start for Reitan who bogeyed his opening hole while his playing partners Schaper and Bradbury applied the pressure with a run of birdies each. They continued to close the gap on the Norwegian on the back nine, and when he bogeyed the 15^th there was just the one shot between them coming up the last. But a strong approach into the 18^th enabled him to make the par he needed to win.

“I was nervous over the approach into 18. I’m just happy I didn’t take too long over that approach – I saw the target and hit the shot and was very happy with it,” he said.

Schaper finished as the leading South African in what was a spectacular debut for the 24-year-old.

“It was my first time playing this event, and watching it on TV you envision yourself having that chance to win. It’s been one of the best weeks I’ve had. This is such a cool event and I just loved it out there,” he said.

Kristoffer Reitan had no expectations on his debut in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player. And nobody expected an incredible opening round that was one shot off the course record to give the Norwegian the lead by the end of day one.

Reitan’s nine-under-par 63 started with back-to-back birdies on his opening two holes. Then he tore through the turn like an elephant bull on the charge with five birdies in six holes. His closing five holes featured three birdies and just a single bogey on the 17^th.

It was more than enough to earn him a three-stroke lead over England’s Marcus Armitage, Frenchman Adrien Saddier and Swede Jesper Svensson who had two eagles in his second nine holes.

“I had no idea what the course record was,” Reitan said of the 62 shot by Lee Westwood in 2011. “I was just trying to hit good shots.”

“It was a brilliant day. I’m very happy with the way I played. I’ve played a lot of golf in South Africa before but I haven’t had particularly good results here, so I’m hoping to change that this week.”

On a cooler day than usual in this tournament, Reitan said it remained a challenge to quite literally not take his eye off the ball on a Gary Player Country Club course that remains a stern test in the game.

“You need to stay on top of it all the time on this golf course because it can bite you pretty quickly. It’s a tough course, but if you hit the ball well you get opportunities, which is what I saw today. But it will be a tough next three rounds to keep the quality and the concentration up.”

His countryman Viktor Hovland, the highest ranked player in the field, opened with a round of three-under-par 69.

The last South African winner of “Africa’s Major” was back in 2017, but two South Africans have given themselves a great chance to change that this year.

Garrick Higgo and Shaun Norris finished round one as the joint leading South Africans on four under par.

“It was a good day. The ball striking was good to start, then around the turn it wasn’t as good as I would’ve liked but my putter kept me in it. I’ve been working on ball striking so I knew if I could hit fairways and greens here I’d have a good day. It all starts off the tee here and hitting a lot of fairways and getting momentum that way,” said Higgo after his bogey-free 68.

Alongside him, Norris showed tremendous composure to bounce back from a double-bogey seven on the second hole and play his way into contention.

“I had a mishap on the second but clawed my way back. Any day you can shoot 68 around this course you’ll always be smiling,” said Norris, who responded to that seven with three birdies in his next four holes.

• Aldrich Potgieter and Thriston Lawrence add to local favourites
• Tickets available to purchase here: Alfred Dunhill Championship

Louis Oosthuizen and a host of former Alfred Dunhill Championship winners will lead an immensely strong South African challenge chasing glory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Royal Johannesburg next week.
 
Oosthuizen, the 2023 champion, will be joined on the famed East Course from 11-14 December by former champions Branden Grace, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Brandon Stone, Richard Sterne, Shaun Norris and Ockie Strydom.
 
Together they make up an impressive collection of seven of the last 12 winners of the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
 
All are looking to become only the third multiple winners of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in its history.
 
The home challenge is further strengthened by PGA TOUR champion Aldrich Potgieter and multiple DP World Tour champions Dean Burmester and Thriston Lawrence.
 
Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal will form part of an impressive list of European challengers seeking to end South Africa’s dominance of this title.
 
Larrazabal was the last European to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2019 when he claimed one of the most memorable victories in the history of this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament as he battled through the pain of blistered feet to win at Leopard Creek.
 
England’s John Parry also heads to South Africa looking to break the local hold on this title, and amidst a successful past season for him.
 
Parry finished runner-up in last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and then tied third in this year’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
 
He ended the recently completed DP World Tour season in 11^th place on the Race to Dubai Rankings, and has earned his PGA TOUR card for next season.
 
Spain’s Angel Ayora and England’s Andy Sullivan both head to South Africa having finished within the top 30 on the Race to Dubai Rankings this past season.

South Africans love to say, “Hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie”. But Johannes Veerman certainly knows. As he returns to Sun City to defend his title in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player, the affable American spoke like a man returning to his second home.

“It feels amazing to be back. South Africa is unbelievable. It’s family driven, it’s an amazing sporting nation, and there’s an amazing zest for life here. The beauty is so raw. We’re playing a world-class venue this week, and then you’ve got Gary Player here, and he’s the GOAT. So everything added together makes this place incredibly special. To come back out and start a new 2026 season in an amazing country like this means a lot,” Veerman said at the Gary Player Country Club on Tuesday.

Veerman enjoyed every minute of reliving the memories of his incredible victory in “Africa’s Major” last year, when he came from five strokes off the lead on the final day to win.

“I played the back nine first in my practice round because I knew we had the big grandstand and I just wanted to be back on 18 and relive that moment,” he said.

But the real clincher was his walk up to the ninth green.

“I was walking on the path with the names of all the past champions, and that one hit pretty good. The first time I played this golf course many years ago I remember seeing those names like Ballesteros, Westwood, Els, Goosen and all the names of the players that have won this tournament. Back then I thought, ‘Wow, this is an unbelievable list of champions’. So to walk down the ninth today and see my name as part of that – it hit me pretty hard.”

Veerman forms part of a quality field for this year’s tournament which also includes Viktor Hovland, Nick Taylor, Aldrich Potgieter, Francesco Molinari, Marco Penge, Haotong Li and Will Zalatoris. – Michael Vlismas

ST FRANCIS BAY, Eastern Cape – It is part of the illustrious history of the Fitch & Leedes PGA Championship that this tournament changes lives. It shapes careers. It builds legends. It’s one of those enduring icons of South African professional golf. And on this Sunday at St Francis Links, Deon Germishuys became a part of this great story.

With a final round of 69, Germishuys won South Africa’s second oldest professional golf tournament on 14 under par – one stroke clear of Samuel Simpson and Hennie du Plessis.

He earned the right to have his name engraved on a trophy alongside the names of Gary Player, Dale Hayes, John Bland, Corey Pavin, Ernie Els, David Frost, Nick Price, Louis Oosthuizen and so many others.

But even more than this, he earned the right to keep doing what he does inside the ropes on the Sunshine Tour for his family, and his new baby.

After playing his heart out on the DP World Tour but still coming short and losing his card there, he returned to home fairways with no playing privileges.

He was hoping for tournament invitations into some of the bigger tournaments. But then came this Sunday in one of South African golf’s most prestigious tournaments, and suddenly the fairways have opened up before him.

“This means a lot to me. I didn’t think I was ever going to win at this golf course. For some reason I never knew how to play it, but it seems like I figured it out now. With all the great names on this trophy, it’s really an honour,” said Germishuys.

And with his young family looking on, he broke down in tears as he added, “It means a lot to have them here”.

Thousands of kilometres away, his father-in-law James Kingston sat in Cambodia at a Legends Tour event and was in tears. Kingston could not have wished for a better present for himself than to have his son-in-law claim such a significant victory on his 60^th birthday.

Because Kingston knows what one week like this can mean.

In 2007, after nearly 20 years of trying, he claimed his first DP World Tour title in the South African Open. That Sunday he beat a field including Darren Clarke, Greg Norman and Ernie Els. And when the win came, he too broke down in tears.

Decades later, Germishuys showed his own character to add his name to an illustrious trophy in South African golf.

As Sundays go on the Sunshine Tour, this was indeed a memorable one for a family in golf.

The Fitch & Leedes PGA Championship is proudly supported by Stinger GC, Momentum, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA), Kouga Municipality, Sarah Baartman District Municipality, Cape St Francis, Telkom and the PGA of South Africa. – Michael Vlismas

ST FRANCIS BAY, Eastern Cape – Luke Jerling had to endure it all on a challenging Saturday of the Fitch & Leedes PGA Championship at St Francis Links, and ended it with a two-shot lead on 13 under par.

After Friday’s weather interruption left the second round incomplete, Jerling finished his second round on Saturday morning with a 66 and a share of the lead with Deon Germishuys (65) on nine under par.

Jerling then endured a tricky third round in which he fought hard for a 68 that included one double bogey, two bogeys and eight birdies to take the sole lead.

Germishuys and Joe Long are his nearest challengers on 11 under par.

But Jerling is extremely experienced and familiar with what St Francis Links can throw at a golfer, having played enough golf here over the years.

“It was a good day overall despite the double bogey and a few bogeys. I thought I bounced back quite nicely from those mishaps. The conditions were tricky and it was probably like a two- to three-club wind. But it’s nothing that I’m not used to around this place having grown up in Gqeberha. This place is close to my heart and I’ve played a lot here and won a few amateur titles here, so I’m experienced on this course. I’m using that and playing smart. I’m very excited for the final round. This golf course, depending on which way the wind is blowing, your gameplan picks itself. Overall I’m very happy. It’s a huge privilege to go out there and try and win the Fitch & Leedes PGA Championship,” said Jerling.

Saturdays third round also produced a spectacular highlight in JJ Senekal’s hole-in-one on the par-three 14^th hole, where he holed out with his eight iron to earn 50 000 Skybucks compliments of Airlink.

The Fitch & Leedes PGA Championship is proudly supported by Stinger GC, Momentum, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA), Kouga Municipality, Sarah Baartman District Municipality, Cape St Francis, Telkom and the PGA of South Africa. – Michael Vlismas Media