The inaugural SDC Championship has drawn a strong
selection of the most in-form players on the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour
for this $1.5 million tournament at St Francis Links from March 16 to 19.
On the latest list of entries for this event, the
Sunshine Tour’s stars include nine out of the top 10 on the current Luno Order
of Merit, with four out of the top five players having won locally or
internationally in the last three months.
The DP World Tour players include 12 out of the top
30 on the current Race to Dubai Rankings, with five of the last 11 winners in
the DP World Tour’s current season.
South Africa’s Ockie Strydom will tee it up as a
two-time winner on the DP World Tour this season already and who is ranked
first on the Luno Order of Merit and fifth on the Race to Dubai Rankings.
The field in St Francis will also include six out
of the current top 10 on the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca
Rankings, including every single winner on the tour this season.
Every winner of either a Sunshine Tour and DP World
Tour co-sanctioned tournament, or a Sunshine Tour and Challenge Tour
co-sanctioned tournament since November 2022 will tee it up, namely Dan
Bradbury (Joburg Open), Thriston Lawrence (Investec South African Open), Ockie
Strydom (Alfred Dunhill Championship), Antoine Rozner (AfrAsia Bank Mauritius
Open), Benjamin Follett-Smith (Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open), Oliver Bekker
(Dimension Data Pro-Am), JJ Senekal (SDC Open) and Dylan Mostert (Nelson
Mandela Bay Championship).
This will be the first time that St Francis Links
hosts a tournament of this magnitude, which is also one of the biggest sporting
events for the region.
The SDC Championship enhances the Skills
Development Corporation’s (SDC) already strong presence in golf through the SDC
Open on the Challenge tour, and this new elevated tournament makes it one of
six tournaments on the DP World Tour’s schedule in South Africa.
