AFRICA’S MAJOR
It all started in 1981, with the most unlikely of sporting announcements. At the height of apartheid and sporting isolation, the gambling resort of Sun City in the South African homeland of Bophuthatswana, would host the world’s richest golf event.
First prize would be the equivalent of R500,000 back then, and the competition would be called the Million Dollar Challenge. That first prize was only R30,000 short of Tom Watson’s earning as the leading money-winner on the entire 1981 PGA Tour.
Five players would take centre stage: South Africa’s Gary Player, Americans Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller, Mexico’s Lee Trevino and Spain’s Seve Ballesteros. The idea of a million-dollar purse had come from Trevino himself, after he had played at the 1981 Sun City Classic, which he won before suggesting to hotel magnate Sol Kerzner to host a mega tournament at the resort.
Anti-apartheid activists were up in arms. Black tennis champion Arthur Ashe asked Nicklaus not to compete as the protests grew, even writing a letter to the golfing great. The ‘Golden Bear’ refused to budge.
The London Sunday Times’s John Hopkins was loud in his criticism. ‘It’s an exotic extravaganza, a snare and a delusion, a hyped-up, quasi-tournament that will be beamed to Japan, Australia, Italy, Canada, Austria, the US and, thanks to Thames Television, to Britain. Most of all, it’s an affront to the dignity of millions of black Africans. And no one, in spite of their column inches in their newspapers and the pictures on their televisions in the next few days, should ever forget that.’
The tournament went ahead and Miller won the $500,000 jackpot, holding off Ballesteros in the playoff after both had signed for 11-under 277s.
Instead of crumbling under the weight of the protestors, the event grew larger. The following year, again ‘between seasons’ in December at Sun City, the field grew to 10 players and the first prize was pegged at $300,000. It was another American, Ray Floyd, who this time pocketed the cash.
And the event simply went on to grow, from a field of 12 players and increased prize money to what it is today, a $7-million dollar tournament sanctioned by the European Tour and part of the Race to Dubai Final series. The first prize is worth $1.166-million and it has a field of 72 golfers.
REIGNING CHAMPION
Australian Marc Leishman played almost flawless golf in the final round of the 2015 Nedbank Golf Challenge as he comfortably won his ninth professional title by six strokes at the Gary Player Country Club. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson finished runner-up as Leishman extended his one-shot overnight lead and kept the 39-year-old Gothenburg native well at bay with the day’s best final-round total of 67 for a four-day total of 19 under. England’s Chris Wood finished alone in third place and a further four shots adrift, while the Race to Dubai runner-up Danny Willett and Frenchman Victor Dubuisson both carded final-round 68s and shared a tie for fourth with American Robert Streb and South Africa’s Branden Grace.
THE BIG EASY
Ernie Els won the 1999 Nedbank Million Dollar Golf Tournament for the first time in his career on home soil since he turned pro in 1989. Els finished the tournament with a remarkable record win of 25-under-par 263, after rounds of 67, 66, 64 and 66. He was ranked in the top five of the official World Golf Ranking and went on to win the cup twice more, in 2000 and 2002.
MULTIPLE WINNERS
3 Ernie Els (1999, 2000, 2002), David Frost (1989, 1990, 1992), Nick Price (1993, 1997, 1998).
2 Seve Ballesteros (1983, 1984), Bernhard Langer (1985, 1991), Sergio Garcia (2001, 2003), Jim Furyk (2005, 2006), Lee Westwood (2010, 2011).
WILD THINGS
In 1991 when John Daly, Ian Woosnam and Steve Elkington stripped off their shirts to sing ‘Wild Thing’ at a party, and later Daly was seen being removed from the bar at 2am the worse for wear and being held up by two security guards. The next day he and Woosnam arrived for their tee-off times, but seemed in no mood to stick around. Daly even resorted to hitting some shots with the club in one hand and hardly taking any time to set up his shot, hitting and walking ahead quickly. Daly later blamed his performance of six over on ‘jet lag’. All the good golf was actually played by Germany’s Bernard Langer, who won the event.
35 YEARS AGO …
The sports boycott of South Africa had been lifted and the African National Congress had endorsed the tournament.
Bophuthatswana’s president, Lucas Mangope, was still in charge, celebrating his 14th anniversary of ‘independence’, and his ‘government’, as usual, skimmed off 50% of the winnings in taxes, leaving Bernhard Langer $500,000 for his winning effort. Langer’s four-day total of 272, 16 under par, gave him a five-stroke victory. American Mark Calcaveccia finished five strokes back, earning $300,000 before taxes. Mark McNulty, of Zimbabwe, was 10 strokes off the lead, good enough for $250,000 and third place. For the first time the tournament drew criticism from the local press. Writing in the Sunday Times, sports editor Edward Griffiths said the tournament may have had its place in the bygone era of sporting isolation, but in the new political climate, the Million Dollar Challenge was ‘obscene’. Gary Player labelled Griffiths’ comments ‘socialist rubbish’, and argued that the tournament would draw tourists to South Africa, create jobs and ‘help show [the world] what this country is like’. – Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times, December 1991
