Local golf fans angry at the lack of a South African winner in the Nedbank Golf Challenge found a new hope to shout for on Saturday as Aldrich Potgieter stormed to the top of the leaderboard ahead of Sunday’s final round at Sun City.
The last South African to win the country’s most-watched tournament was Branden Grace in 2017. Potgieter is a young man on a meteoric rise though, and the 20-year-fired a blistering six-under-par 66 on Saturday to claim a three-stroke lead on seven-under-par.
As impressive as his four birdies and an eagle on the famous par-five 14th hole – now shorn of the love-grass however – were, it was even more admirable that Potgieter went around the daunting Gary Player Country Club course bogey-free on another day of furnace-like heat.
It just continues a phenomenal last few months for Potgieter, who was born in Mossel Bay and attended the Louis Oosthuizen Academy before emigrating to Australia and enjoying amateur wins over there.
He returned to South Africa in 2022 and won The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s, gaining him places in the Open Championship, the Masters and the U.S. Open, where he made the cut. Potgieter turned pro in June 2023 and this year he became the youngest ever winner on the Korn Ferry Tour (U.S. PGA Tour second tier) when he won the Bahamas Classic. He also shot a 59 at the Astara Golf Championship in Bogota, making him the youngest player to shoot that in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Potgieter finished high enough in the Korn Ferry Tour order of merit to get his PGA Tour card for this season.
Little wonder then that Gary Player and Sun International felt he was worth an invite to the Nedbank Golf Challenge. The sizeable crowd following him and roaring their support further validated the decision.
“I was loving the crowd, it was pretty awesome to have them following me,” Potgieter said. “I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this before and it would be a dream come true to win tomorrow. A lot of friends and family are on their way to watch me and it was great to get the invite and then be able to play good golf.
“I made a putter switch from the mallet to the blade on the second day because I was leaving a lot of putts short. But I capitalised on my opportunities today, there was a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure.
“The Nedbank Golf Challenge has always been such a big thing for my Dad, for the last 20 years he’s been talking about it. So I’m excited to put on a show in the final round and it’s going to be great to have all that support. There’s one day left and hopefully then I’ll be standing on 18 holding up the trophy,” Potgieter said.
Johannes Veerman (right) with the Nedbank Golf Challenge trophy, alongside tournament patron Gary Player. Photo: Grant Leversha, Nedbank Golf Challenge
Johannes Veerman produced inspired golf on the final day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Sunday, but even then his eventual victory had a touch of the miraculous about it, with the 32-year-old himself expressing his amazement.
Veerman shot a 69, one of just four sub-70 rounds on the final day, to finish on five-under-par 283. He was in the tie for seventh, five shots off the lead, at the end of the third round. But no-one else on that score or above him on the leaderboard was able to shoot less than 71 and Veerman came from nowhere to claim the prestigious title.
“What just happened?!” Veerman said in his press conference after lifting the famous crystal trophy on the 18th green, presented by tournament patron Gary Player. “My mindset after posting five-under was that at best I would have to go out again for a playoff, but I was thunderstruck when I heard I didn’t have to.
“I really look up to players like Max Homa and Mackenzie Hughes, and Gary Player of course, to be in the same field as them is a dream come true because I respect them so much. But to actually win, you have to pinch me, how did I do that? It’s crazy!,” Veerman said.
For the player born in Orange County, California, the win is his first outside of Europe, having won the Czech Masters in 2021. Veerman has always prioritised playing on the DP World Tour, and his journey towards fulfilling all his golfing dreams has been a fascinating one.
The son of a Dutch father who worked for a multinational oil and gas company, Veerman lived his early life in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China, England and the United States. His mother is Indonesian.
He went to university at Tulsa and at Texas A&M, but he is one of the few American golfers who clearly have a global view of the game. Homa, who was the defending champion, is another.
But it was while the family were living in Berkshire, England that Veerman’s life changed. He was nine years old when father Jan took him to watch the PGA Championship at Wentworth. Johannes was enchanted and immediately decided to take up golf.
His talent for the game was obvious and he returned to the U.S. to play college golf. Except being a professional golfer was still not his first love. Following a mishap when a firework accident nearly blew off his thumb, Veerman was so impressed by the work of the surgeons who repaired the damage that he decided he wanted to be a doctor.
That only changed when his fellow pre-med students at Texas A&M said playing golf would surely be a better option.
And that ‘career change’ certainly seems to have paid off as Veerman now has his second professional victory, and a famous title that carried a winner’s cheque of more than a million dollars.
“To win Africa’s Major – I can now put that on my Instagram and call it the fifth Major! – means a lot because my family has sacrificed so much for me. My wife sold her business and now we travel with a one and a two-year-old, so it’s a lot of work being on the road all year. So this is really satisfying.
“I’ve played the majority of my golf in Europe and Asia but my first priority has been the European Tour. So I remember Ernie Els and Retief Goosen winning here, I was a very big fan of them and always wondered what it would be like playing on this iconic course.
“I was kinda lurking all week, so to walk away with the trophy feels amazing. I could not believe how big the grandstands were on 18 when I played a practice round and the crowds have been amazing. I think it helps that I have a name like ‘Johannes Veerman’, so it feels a bit like home advantage!
“This week has also been great fun with all the functions and meeting really fun people. We had a fireworks show, dinner in the bush and just so much fun because the support of the crowds is amazing and just the whole environment is great.
“Sun City compares with anywhere in the world and the Gary Player Country Club is absolutely a premier golf course. All the greens look like clovers so there are little nooks. Nowhere else in the world do you get that plus the wind and heat we’ve had every day. They call this place the ‘Caddy Graveyard’ because the wind just switches all the time.
“The closing stretch especially is so difficult, and I knew that if I could par my way in then I might have a chance. It’s an incredible test of golf and you have to stay so patient. It tests every club in your game, but not just your equipment, also your attitude and your grit.
Although the married father of two clearly wants to experience the wonderful whole wide world of golf, he admits that eventually a return home to play on the U.S. PGA Tour is clearly a goal.
“I could play on the DP World Tour forever and I love playing in Europe, and of course now in South Africa. I’m obviously coming back to Sun Coty, forever at this point, and winning this tournament is the biggest bang at the start of the season that I could have hoped for.
“But I would also love to play on the PGA Tour and this is such a big step in that direction. All my family are over in the U.S. and with decisions about daycare and schools coming up in a few years, obviously I would be nearer to my kids if I play in America,” Veerman said.
Having won the toughest Nedbank Golf Challenge since 1990 when David Frost claimed his second title with a four-under-par tally of 284, the outlook is good for Veerman, who has now gone to the top of the Race to Dubai rankings, to finish in the top-10 of the order of merit and gain a PGA Tour card.
Max Homa of the United States with the trophy as he celebrates his four-shot victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on Sunday. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Max Homa probably won’t actually enlist the services of a rolodex when it comes to remembering his magnificent approach shot on the ninth hole at Gary Player Country Club on Sunday, but the winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge left no doubt that his superb three-iron that led to a defining eagle will live long in his memory.
And also in the history of the tournament as Homa’s second from 240 yards landed 18 feet from the pin on the iconic ninth green and he rolled in the eagle putt. With Thorbjorn Olesen having just claimed his sixth birdie of the front nine to catch the American on 16-under-par, the eagle gave Homa a crucial two-shot buffer as the back nine beckoned.
“The second on the ninth was the shot of the tournament for me,” Homa said after clinching an impressive four-shot victory, his great final round of 66 taking him to 19-under-par.
“My coach [Mark Blackburn] always says I must have a rolodex of big moments to look back on and that was definitely one for the memory bank.
“I had a good lie in the semi-rough and a good number, and I hit a great three-iron. If you don’t get the ball very high in the air here then the elevation doesn’t help as much and it was a bit shorter than I wanted.
“But it was one of those shots you dream about and a really great time to hit a good shot. I was three-under at the time but still tied for the lead, which shows how impressively Thorbjorn played.
“I wanted to make a statement to myself and not back off. I didn’t need to play that shot because I was sharing the lead, but I knew I could make it. My caddy [Ben Marsh] said if I feel it then I must just go for it, and then I sunk a great putt,” Homa said.
The on-fire Olesen also birdied the par-five 10th hole from close range and the Dane was back level again when Homa bogeyed the par-four 11th, his approach being too far left and two chips being required to get on to the green.
But the class of the world number eight then shone bright as a beacon, almost like the giant star that is traditionally lit up on the hill overlooking Sun City as the festive season kicks into gear.
Olesen (-14) and Nicolai Hojgaard (-15) both missed key chances in the closing holes and Olesen surrendered second place to his compatriot when he double-bogeyed the 17th, missing a short putt for a five on the famous par-four, having found the fairway bunkers with his drive.
What Homa later described as a “humungous stroke of luck” saw his errant drive on the 14th hit a rules official’s cart parked on the pathway next to the fairway, preventing the ball from bouncing into the think Pilanesberg bush. He was able to par the par-five and then a seven-foot birdie on the 15th put Homa two ahead, and an unlikely birdie on the par-three 16th, when he rammed in a 38-foot putt, sealed the deal.
Fellow American Justin Thomas also shot a 66 on Sunday to soar up the leaderboard into fourth place on 12-under-par, while DP World Tour rookie Dan Bradbury finished fifth on 11-under, the rubble of three bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-four 11th being too much to sustain a challenge despite his six birdies.
The removal in recent times of American contenders from the Nedbank Golf Challenge – Jim Furyk being the last United States golfer to win in 2006 – has certainly taken some of the gloss off the tournament, but Homa was appreciative of the history of Africa’s Major and delighted to now be part of its legacy.
“I’m big into manifesting and there are some pretty big names on the plaques of all the winners around the ninth green – Seve Ballesteros and Ernie Els are greats of the game. So I was picturing my name on one of those plaques and to achieve that, especially straight after Tommy Fleetwood, who is one of my favourite people on the planet, is really special.
“I know Tommy really wanted to win three in a row, but he got us at the Ryder Cup and now I’ve got one on him,” a grinning Homa said.
Max Homa of the USA plays his second shot on the 13th hole during the third round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on Saturday. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Beginning the third round tied for the lead with Matthieu Pavon, Homa dropped just one stroke on Saturday and that was the key to his pre-eminent position heading into the final round. What he described as a “squirrelly” start saw the American bogey the par-three fourth hole, but he immediately birdied the fifth to cut Pavon’s lead back to one shot.
The key moment of the day came on the par-five 10th as Homa holed his bunker shot for eagle. Another birdie for the 32-year-old on the next par-five, the 14th, ensured he would lead alone after Pavon dropped shots on 15 and 16.
Homa posted a three-under-par 69 on Saturday to finish on 13-under overall, with Pavon’s 70 leaving him on 12-under. Nicolai Hojgaard’s 69, containing three bogeys as well as six birdies, lifted him to 11-under-par with Thorbjorn Olesen, whose only bogey came on the 16th, as he also shot 69.
“I didn’t swing so well to start, it was all a bit scrappy, but I hit the ball really well for the last 10 holes, I just didn’t sink anything,” Homa said after his round. “It felt like I was hitting good shots but not capitalising, things weren’t going my way before that nice bunker shot on 10, that was a lovely boost.
“I gave myself a lot of looks today and the plan tomorrow is to make a few more putts. It’s a dream and an honour just to have the opportunity to win this tournament, which has a tremendous history. Every day we walk past the winners’ plaques at the ninth green, it’s an impressive list and I would love to add my name to that legacy. All I can do is put myself in the best position to do that,” Homa said.
Pavon was okay with his position after a boiling hot, gruelling day at Sun City, nestled like a kiln between the Pilanesberg mountains. Before his late bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes, the Frenchman had been four-under for his round, not bad going in the testing conditions with the wind also having picked up.
“It was nice to start well with three birdies in the first seven holes, but overall it was a real grind today. It was hard, the pins are in tricky places and it was all about managing your game. It was also a very long day – five-and-a-half hours, which is too long in that heat and intensity, you drain a lot of energy.
“It was good to walk away with two pars, that was a very solid finish. It’s always nice having won a few weeks ago [the Spanish Open on October 15], so my confidence is pretty high and my game feels good,” Pavon said.
The chances of a South African winner, for the first time since Branden Grace in 2017, seem to be drying up with Hennie du Plessis still the leading local, but on five-under, eight shots off the lead. Three birdies in the first five holes on Saturday were considerable hops up the leaderboard, but he then slumped back with five bogeys leaving him with a 74.
Dan Bradbury, whose rapid rise from nowhere to prominence is one of the stories of the season, had a day of astronomical ups and downs, a bogey at the last leaving him on 10-under-par in fifth place.
On the 195m, par-three foirth, he was inches away from claiming a hole-in-one, but he followed up that birdie with another one on the fifth. The Joburg Open winner went out in two-under 34 after a bogey on the par-four eighth and a birdie on the par-five ninth.
The back nine was an epic rollercoaster for the Englishman. He left his birdie putt on the par-five 11th just short and then bogeyed the par-three 12th. He missed another birdie opportunity on the par-fibe 14th with a terrible close-range miss, but them made a marvellous 25ft putt for par on 15, followed by a massive 34-footer for birdie on the 16th.
Like many others, he then found himself in trouble on the 18th, the toughest hole in the third round, when he missed the green right and chipped out of the rough, 17 feet past the flag, failing to make the par-putt.
Mark 16:15 – “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation’.”
We need to be witnesses for Christ, we need to be unashamed of our faith in Jesus. But sometimes we hesitate to confess our faith in Jesus before the world because of suggestions that religion is taboo in polite company or people are put off by those who are aggressively enthusiastic about their beliefs.
“It is, however, important to know when to speak and when to be quiet. There is one sure way to testify to your faith without offending other people, and that is to follow the example of Jesus. His whole life was a testimony of commitment to his duty; sympathy, mercy and love for all people, regardless of their rank or circumstances. This is the very best way to be a witness for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you so that others will see Christ in everything you do and say. In this way you will fulfill the command of the Lord.” – A Shelter From The Storm by Solly Ozrovech
My Springbok team (URC & Champions Cup players only)
15-Damian Willemse
14-Canan Moodie
13-Henco van Wyk
12-Andre Esterhuizen
11-Kurt-Lee Arendse
10-Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
9-Grant Williams
8-Cameron Hanekom
7-Elrigh Louw
6-Siya Kolisi
5-Ruan Nortje
4-Cobus Wiese
3-Wilco Louw
2-Johan Grobbelaar
1-Ox Nche
Replacements: Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Gerhard Steenekamp, Neethling Fouche, Ruben van Heerden, Sibabalwe Mahashe, Marco van Staden, Embrose Papier, Edwill van der Merwe.
