“To be going for a third win seems pretty surreal”: Tommy Fleetwood talks about winning a hat-trick at Nedbank Golf Challenge
Tommy Fleetwood will have the opportunity to etch his name in DP World Tour history this weekend. The Englishman will play in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, a tournament that holds special significance for him.
Fleetwood will arrive at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa, as the defending champion for the second year in a row. He won in 2019 and 2022, while the tournament was suspended in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the possibility of getting his third consecutive victory in the tournament, Tommy Fleetwood expressed that it "seems pretty surreal".
Speaking to the Press Association, Fleetwood said:
“Ever since the first time I came it’s got a very special feeling to it driving into the gates of Sun City and it’s such an historic event for a lot of us. For my generation I guess, and for people older and younger too, but I remember it as the Million Dollar Challenge so it’s always had such a high value. And yet to be going for a third win seems pretty surreal, but we’ll see what we can do.”
If he wins the 2023 edition of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Tommy Fleetwood would join the illustrious company of Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, who have also won a DP World Tour event three times in a row.
Woods won the WGC-NEC Invitational between 1999 and 2001, while Faldo won the Irish Open between 1991 and 1993.
Tommy Fleetwood at the Nedbank Golf Challenge
The Englishman won the 2019 edition of the Nedbank Golf Challenge for the first time, defeating Sweden's Marcus Kinhult in a playoff. The final score was 12-under 276, while the sudden death took only one hole.
His second triumph in the tournament came in the 2022 season. Tommy Fleetwood defeated New Zealand's Ryan Fox by one stroke, sealing the result with an eagle on the 14th hole of the fourth round. The final score was 11-under 277 and was Fleetwood's sixth victory on Europe's premier circuit.
The Nedbank Golf Challenge was established in 1981 as the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge. It has been played every year since then (except 2020 and 2021) at the Gary Player Country Club.
Great players such as Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer have played and won here. Other illustrious players have also brought prestige to the event such as Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods.
Four players share the distinction of being the tournament's top winners, David Frost, Nick Price, Ernie Els and Lee Westwood. Five others have won it twice (Fleetwood, Langer, Ballesteros, Jim Furyk and Sergio Garcia).
Els owns the tournament's aggregate and to-par records, since he won in 1999 with a score of 25-under 263.