These days, the Million Dollar Challenge is more about cracking the nod than it is about the prize money, reports Andy Capostagno
The most delicious irony of the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge is that you have to be a millionaire in the first place just to crack an invite.
A decade ago when Welshman Ian Woosnam won the first-ever million-dollar cheque (before then the purse was split) it was news throughout the world, even though Sun City in those days was seen internationally as the bastion of apartheid.
What news is there today in a player winning a million dollars? Spanish tennis player Alex Corretja won $1,36- million on Sunday by beating Carlos Moya in the final of the ATP World Championships.
For baseball, basketball and gridiron players, a million dollars is the sort of sweetener a player gets for agreeing to be photographed with the franchise owner’s children.
It’s not about money. Indeed, if we are to believe the publicity department of the Million Dollar Challenge, Tiger Woods has not been paid an appearance fee to peg it up at Sun City for the first time; and Woods goes nowhere without a million dollar guarantee, whether he makes the cut or not.
Woods has been persuaded to come by some big names. Mark O’Meara, the winner of this year’s US Masters and the British Open Championship will have sung the tournament’s praises to the young man. Gary Player, the host of the Million, will have done likewise and along the way a few words will have been whispered in his ear by the likes of Ernie Els and Nick Price.
So Woods is here and, being a black American celebrity, he has done the traditional thing in meeting President Nelson Mandela. The big question now is can he win and the answer seems to be no, he can’t.
Simon Hobday said: “It depends what head he brings with him. If he brings the right one then everyone else can go home. But he’s flying in from Japan, he’s never seen the course before and he needs to hit the ball very straight. I don’t think he’s going to win first time out”.
Els and Price disagreed. Said Els: “He can hit a two iron off the tee and still be competitive.” Said Price: “Every time I see him he’s got a little better. I don’t think he’ll be at his very best until eight to 10 years from now, but in the meantime he’s got so much already that he can win at any time.”
Els and Price were talking after a head-to-head at Leopard Creek on Monday. Sponsorship from Vodacom and Shell got them there, but Els has a house alongside the 15th hole and for Price it was a stop-off en-route from winning the Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare.
He finished with a 63 and when he arrived at Leopard Creek later that night Els went one up when he said: “Well done Nicky, I see you shot your age.”
Fundamentally, however, Els is a Price fan. He said: “Nick and I spend so much time abroad that it’s a real treat to play in front of a home crowd. We lift our games and if I had to pick a winner this week it would be Nick. He’s hitting it so far past me off the tee that I feel like Corey Pavin, and his iron play is just superb. He loves Sun City and he’s putting so well at the moment that he must be favourite to retain his title.”
Els and Price both go in with the advantage of knowing the Gary Player Country Club course inside out. That alone places them ahead of the debutants, Jim Furyk, Lee Westwood, Jesper Parnevik, Tom Watson, David Duval and Woods. It would be foolish to discount half of the field, but first- timers have never done well at Sun City with its unfamiliar problems.
When United States left-hander Phil Mickelson made his debut he came with the reputation of having the best short game of all. Early in his round he hit his ball into the rough left of the green, took out his lob wedge, made a full, easy swing and was genuinely astonished when the ball moved no more than 15 centimetres. In a game as quietly cerebral as golf it was the equivalent of a rabbit punch to the kidneys.
If a debutant is to win this week it is likely to be either Duval or Westwood, the latter having played the course a couple of times in the Dimension Data Pro-Am. Of the two Westwood is the more fearless, Duval the more focused. Both have won plenty of times in the past 12 months, Westwood all over the world, Duval in the comfort zone of the USPGA tour.
Both will be fortunate in that the crowds will be following Els and Woods, so the course should appear somewhat less claustrophobic.
The winner will be the man who keeps his ball in play, avoids three putting and maintains his equilibrium amid the prickly heat of the Pilanesburg. He will also be a millionaire. Take your pick.
ENDS