Preview: 2010 Ned bank Golf Challenge
Gary Player Country Club, the site for the yearly held Ned bank Golf Challenge, is the most prestigious golf course and one of the foremost lure at the prolific Sun City resort, South Africa.
The venue is ranked second after the Leopard Creek and is rated in the top sixty courses of the world. Sun City, where the golf course resides, is a world-renowned resort with two casinos, four hotels, tennis area and a football ground.
Sun City is known for its outstanding golf courses and nine crocodiles that live near the greens. These crocodiles make putting a great challenge especially when the ball lands in the open mouth of the reptiles. Considering it yet another challenge, golfers
on the visit, rate the course as an exquisite trip to some lost City.
The thriving mission of the course is the quality and it is one feature which is observed on the kikuyu fairways, bent-grass greens and in the service provided at the beautiful clubhouse. The quality comes from its architect, who was considered as one of
the greatest golfers in the world. Gary Player stressed on accuracy in his game and when he designed the 7,655-yard course alongside Ron Kirkby, he bought accuracy, length and perfection into the scene. The course is considered as the longest in Africa and
third longest in the world.
It is open to public for most of the weekdays except Monday and during the tournaments.
Sun City is the other name for challenge, water, sand and hills. There are thorn-scrubs planted on the sides of the fairways whereas the hills give a view of aloe covering the entire area. Once a ball missed at the hill can earn a golfer triple bogey and
nothing less than that. The putting area is fast and hard which makes the pin-placement easy.
Water serves as a hurdle on five holes. However, the worst challenge comes in play at the par-five 9th hole which holds the record of maximum number of bogeys. The green takes the shape of an island with water on all sides. A perfect wedge game can save
the scorecard from a blemish.
The specifications make the hole a signature one. In fact, according to the event's press release, “the ninth hole at Gary Player Golf Club is a trap, which is designed to turn a winner into a loser and an average golfer into a Marwick.”
Another hole grabs the attention of the visitors and that is the closing hole of the back nine. Par-4 18th is a bunkered-fairway and green with an amphitheatre on the left. A birdie earned and a shot missed at this hole will grab the maximum applause
from the spectators seated near the fairway.
Gary Player Golf Club is situated in Sun City which is termed as the ‘showcase of golf in Africa’. The par-72 will be hosting Ned bank Golf Challenge on December 2nd and will bid farewell to the event on the weekend. The venue is rated as second
to Leopard Creek, which will be hosting the Alfred Dunhill Championship in the coming week. 12 strongest golfers will be teeing off for a purse of $5 million.
Ross Fisher, Edoardo Molinari, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington, Anders Hansen, Tim Clark, Louis Oosthuizen, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Allenby, Mark McNulty, Jay Haas, Fulton Allem, Tommy Armour III, David Frost,
Fred Funk, Nick Price and Jeff Sluman will be teeing off.
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