Nedbank Golf Challenge

The Nedbank Golf Challenge is an annual golf tournament played over the Gary Player Country Club Course in Sun City South Africa. It was inaugurated in 1981 and has had several previous names. Like most high profile unofficial tournaments in professional golf it takes place between the conclusion of the PGA Tour and PGA European Tour official schedules in early November, and Christmas. It does not count for world ranking points, but nonetheless it attracts many of the world's highest ranked players.

Related Topics:
Golf - Tournament - Gary Player - Sun City - South Africa - 1981 - PGA Tour - PGA European Tour - Christmas - World ranking points

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The tournament is a twelve man invitational stroke play event. When it was first staged the first prize was a then unheard of one million U.S. dollars. This was designed to overcome any qualms the world's top golfers might have about competing in South Africa during the apartheid era, and it was successful in doing this in many cases. It was known as "The Million Dollar Challenge" in the early years. The budget required for the tournament was kept in check by awarding a much higher share of the overall prize fund to the winner than is the case in most other golf tournaments.

Related Topics:
Stroke play - U.S. - Dollar - South Africa - Apartheid - Era - Budget

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From 2000 to 2002 the first prize was $2 million, which as of early 2005 remains the largest prize in the history of golf, but the following year the winner's share of the total prize find was reduced from more than half to around 30%. The standard winner's share on the PGA Tour is 18% and on the PGA European Tour it is 16.67%.

Related Topics:
2000 - 2002 - 2005

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In 2004 the winner received $1.2 million, out of a total purse of $4.06 million.

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