Gary Player Country Club Course Guide: Nedbank Golf Challenge (2026)
Andy Molitor
3 hours ago
Gary Player Country Club is a par-72 course at Sun City, South Africa, and it hosts the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player from Thursday, December 3, to Sunday, December 6, 2026. It is long, it is cut through the bushveld, and it is rebuilt in places for 2026, starting with a brand-new first hole. The short version: the par 5s give, everything else takes, and a winning week here has usually landed around 14 or 15 under par.
This guide sticks to the course itself: the layout, the changes, the history, and every winner since 2014. The betting side of the week, meaning strokes-gained fits and how each player has scored here, is what the Rabbit Hole model builder is for.
Where is Gary Player Country Club?
Gary Player Country Club sits inside the Sun City resort in South Africa’s North West province, right beside Pilanesberg National Park. Gary Player designed it and it opened in 1979. The fairways are kikuyu, a thick grass that grabs the club, and the greens are bentgrass with plenty of slope.
The Nedbank Golf Challenge has been played here since the event began in 1981 as the Million Dollar Challenge. It has been an official DP World Tour event since the December 2013 edition, which counted toward the 2014 season, and the 2026 edition is the 44th. The 2025 edition had a 66-man field and no cut, with a 6 million dollar purse, and the DP World Tour lists the same 6 million dollar purse for 2026.
What changed at Gary Player Country Club for 2026?
The biggest change is a new par-4 first hole of 470 metres, roughly 514 yards, built alongside the old opener and higher up the slope. Sun International and Gary Player announced it in August 2026 as the most significant course change in the tournament’s history. The old first hole became the course’s first dedicated practice range. A permanent range arriving more than 40 years into this event is a strange little fact all on its own.
Beyond the opener, the 2026 work added new professional tees on several holes, refurbished bunkers, enlarged the dam alongside the par-5 second, and opened up the view of the waterfall at the par-5 ninth. The DP World Tour had not published a 2026 scorecard when this guide was written on November 5, 2026, so the yardages below are from the last edition.
Some of the change started a year earlier. For the December 2025 edition, the tee on the par-3 seventh moved back about 25 metres and a new back tee went in on the 15th. That is why those two holes read longer below than on older cards.
Gary Player Country Club scorecard, hole by hole
Par and yardage for every hole at Gary Player Country Club as played at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December 2025, from the DP World Tour’s tournament card, checked against the course’s published championship card. The two cards agree within a yard on 16 of the 18 holes, and the other two are the new tees on the 7th and 15th. The 2026 changes are in the last column.
| Hole | Par | Yards (Dec. 2025) | Changed for 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 441 | New hole, 470 metres (about 514 yards) |
| 2 | 5 | 569 | Dam enlarged |
| 3 | 4 | 449 | |
| 4 | 3 | 213 | |
| 5 | 4 | 491 | |
| 6 | 4 | 424 | |
| 7 | 3 | 238 | |
| 8 | 4 | 492 | |
| 9 | 5 | 596 | Waterfall view opened up |
| Out | 36 | 3,913 | |
| 10 | 5 | 547 | |
| 11 | 4 | 458 | |
| 12 | 3 | 219 | |
| 13 | 4 | 444 | |
| 14 | 5 | 601 | |
| 15 | 4 | 510 | |
| 16 | 3 | 212 | |
| 17 | 4 | 478 | |
| 18 | 4 | 503 | |
| In | 36 | 3,972 | |
| Total | 72 | 7,885 | Longer, 2026 card not yet published |
Look at the par 3s. Four of them, and the shortest was 212 yards in 2025. There is no wedge hole on this course.
What makes Gary Player Country Club hard?
Long par 3s and long par 4s, played into slick, sloping greens out of grabby rough. Our DP World Tour scoring data covers every round played in the last five tour events on the course, from 2020 to 2025 (four Nedbanks plus the 2020 South African Open), and in that stretch the field averaged about three-quarters of a shot over par per round. The par 3s and par 4s each played a little more than an eighth of a shot over par per hole. The par 5s played almost three-tenths of a shot under.
That split is the whole course. The par-5 10th has been the easiest hole on the property, about four-tenths of a shot under par on average across those five events, and the par-5 second is close behind at about a third of a shot under. The par-5 ninth gives back too, though less, about a fifth of a shot under, with the second shot playing toward the waterfall by the green.
There is no single monster at the other end, just a cluster. The 449-yard third, the 492-yard eighth, and the 444-yard 13th, all par 4s, have each played about a fifth of a shot over par on average across those five events, and the 219-yard par-3 12th is right there with them. A player who plays those four in even par for the week has done well.
And the scoring swings a lot from year to year. Max Homa won the 2023 edition at 19 under. At the next edition, in December 2024, Johannes Veerman won at 5 under. Same course, same par, a 14-shot gap between winners.
Nedbank Golf Challenge winners and scores
The winning score at Gary Player Country Club has ranged from 5 under to 19 under over the last 10 editions, and the middle of that range sits at about 14 or 15 under. Kristoffer Reitan won the 2025 Nedbank Golf Challenge at 17 under, one shot clear, after leading from start to finish.
Winners of the last 10 Nedbank Golf Challenge editions at Gary Player Country Club, with the winning total and score to par, checked against two sources. The event was not played in 2020 or 2021.
| Year | Winner | Total | To par |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Kristoffer Reitan | 271 | -17 |
| 2024 | Johannes Veerman | 283 | -5 |
| 2023 | Max Homa | 269 | -19 |
| 2022 | Tommy Fleetwood | 277 | -11 |
| 2019 | Tommy Fleetwood | 276 | -12 |
| 2018 | Lee Westwood | 273 | -15 |
| 2017 | Branden Grace | 277 | -11 |
| 2016 | Alex Noren | 274 | -14 |
| 2015 | Marc Leishman | 269 | -19 |
| 2014 | Danny Willett | 270 | -18 |
Two things stand out. Tommy Fleetwood won it twice in a row, in 2019 and 2022, both times at a modest 11 or 12 under, so the tougher years have not been shootouts. And Branden Grace in 2017 is still the last South African to win South Africa’s biggest event.
The course did host one other DP World Tour event in that gap. Christiaan Bezuidenhout won the 2020 South African Open at Gary Player Country Club at 18 under, by five shots.
Gary Player Country Club records
The Nedbank Golf Challenge 72-hole record is Ernie Els‘s 263, 25 under par, in 1999. No winner in the last 10 editions came closer than six shots. Marc Leishman in 2015 and Max Homa in 2023 came closest, both at 269. Els has also won the event three times.
Defending is rare. Only seven players have won the Nedbank Golf Challenge back to back, so Reitan would be the eighth if he holds on in December 2026.
When is the 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge?
The 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player runs Thursday, December 3, to Sunday, December 6, 2026, at Gary Player Country Club. South Africa is seven hours ahead of US Eastern time in December, so a 4 p.m. finish in Sun City would be 9 a.m. Eastern, and most of each round happens while the US is asleep. US TV and streaming windows had not been posted when this guide was written on November 5, 2026.
If you are new to betting a DP World Tour event, the way prices, place terms, and ties work does not change by tour, and our guide to how to bet on golf covers all of it.
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Frequently asked questions
Which Race to Dubai season does the December 2026 Nedbank count toward?
The 2027 season. The DP World Tour season starts in late autumn of the year before, so the December 2025 Nedbank was part of the 2026 Race to Dubai and the December 2026 edition counts toward the 2027 race.
Who has committed to the 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge?
The first five names announced in August 2026 were defending champion Kristoffer Reitan, Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau, Casey Jarvis, and Marco Penge. The tour has added more names since, and the full field comes closer to the event.
Why was there no Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2020 or 2021?
Both editions were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament returned in November 2022, when Tommy Fleetwood won it for the second straight time it was played.
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