Wise heads have prevailed and the edict that says ”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” has been applied. This time last year the obituary writers were dusting down their eulogies for the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, the corporate bean feast that morphed out of the ”Million Dollar”.
The 25th year, incorporating the 100th round, looked like bringing down the curtain on the most exclusive invitation event in the world of golf.
Yet here we all are again, complaining about the heat, the price of alcohol and the fact that you can’t get near a table in Raffles to squander a few chips. Here, too, are a dozen elite golfers competing for a paltry $4 385 000. The winner gets $1,2-million, last place a footling $200 000.
The 26th version has more South Africans among the field (four) than ever before. It is exactly a year since Ernie Els emerged from a four-month enforced break, courtesy of knee surgery necessitated by a tumble on his yacht. He battled his way around the Gary Player Country Club, but everyone knew he wasn’t right.
The hallmark of Els’s game was missing. Not the languid swing, nor the fairway amble, but the lordly address. Els had the kind of set-up over the ball that was the envy of the world. Relaxed and confident, but as solid as the rock of Gibraltar; push him in mid-swing and he would complete the swing without falling over. Last year that was gone, replaced by a doppelgänger that didn’t know which part of the swing would hurt his knee.
Slowly Els rediscovered his game, but he has not won during this calendar year. He has slipped down the world rankings to seventh and, despite his three wins at Sun City, it would be a brave man who wagered on him this week.
Look instead for one of the hottest golfers on the planet to make a successful debut: Trevor Immelman. The Somerset West-born Immelman has reached a career-high 13th in the world and has just secured the rookie of the year title on the United States PGA Tour, finishing seventh in the money list with the small matter of $3 844 189. At the age of 26 Immelman has a home in Richmond, England, another in Lake Nona, Florida, and the world at his feet.
If you don’t believe me, listen to what Gary Player said about him a few weeks ago: ”If you were to ask me which golfer currently has the best swing in the game, I would say Trevor Immelman. I’m not saying he’s the best player, although he might get there, but if you want to learn the best way to swing the club, watch Trevor. He’s fantastic.”
Immelman now has a small inkling of the pressure that Els carried with him for so long at Sun City. Having made his debut in 1992, Els had to wait until 1999 for his maiden victory; then he hogged the limelight by winning it three times in four years. For those seven winless years Els clearly felt the disappointment of his fans. Now it’s Immelman’s turn.
He said: ”I’ve been feeling it since I got back to South Africa. Everyone tells you that you can win. On the other hand, it’s a great compliment that people think I can win this. I won here before on the Sunshine Tour in the 2003 Dimension Data Pro-Am and I am comfortable on this course. Accurate tee shots and putting are the two most important factors. If you can keep the ball in play, you can give yourself a chance.”
At the other end of the scale lies another debutant, Charl Schwartzel, a solid campaigner on the European Tour who earns an invitation by dint of having won the Order of Merit on the Sunshine Tour last season. Schwartzel was a gifted amateur and has taken to the world of professional golf a little easier than some of his contemporaries.
The fourth member of the South African contingent is Retief Goosen, another Major winner who has endured a quiet year by his own standards. Goosen won at Sun City in 2004 and lost in a four-man play-off to Jim Furyk last year.
Talking of Furyk, has anyone climbed higher in any sport with such odd mechanics? At the height of his fame much was made of Jack Nicklaus’s ”flying elbow”, but the Golden Bear was a paragon of orthodoxy in comparison to his balding compatriot.
Furyk has two flying elbows and a pair of wobbly wrists, yet he gets the clubface square at impact more frequently than almost anyone in the game.
The unorthodoxy does not end once he reaches the green either, and he has a stop-go putting routine that is simply a commentator’s nightmare. What Furyk has done better than anyone is to ignore the experts and concentrate on holing the ball in as few blows as possible.
In 1997 his agent had to write a begging letter to the organisers for an invitation to the Million Dollar. Now he is the defending champion and one of the few top Americans popular wherever he pegs it up in the world.
Can Furyk win again? Of course he can, but this is as strong a field as has ever been assembled at Sun City and, if you’re thinking of placing a bet, it’s probably a good year to remember the story of the great English footballer, Stan Bowles, of whom it was said: ”If he could pass a bookmaker’s like he can pass a football, he’d be a millionaire.”