The DP World Tour enters the penultimate week of the ‘Opening Swing’ with a second consecutive stop in South Africa for this week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship.
This event was first staged at the Houghton Golf Club in 2000. It was played their through 2004.
The Alfred Dunhill Championship moved to its current venue, Leopard Creek, in 2005 and has been played there since. This week marks the 18th consecutive year (outside of 2017 for course renovations and 2020 due to COVID19) that the event has been staged at Leopard Creek.
This week’s event is co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
The Field
Over the past three seasons, a home favorite from South Africa had claimed victory at this event. Louis Oosthuizen is the defending champion as Ockie Strydom won in 2022 and Christiaan Bezuidenhout claimed victory in 2021.
All three of those past champions will be back this week looking to claim their respective second Alfred Dunhill Championship title.
Other home favorites teeing it up this week include four time champion Charl Schwartzel (2004, 2012, 2013 and 2015.) Brandon Stone (2016,) Branden Grace (2014,) and Richard Sterne (2008) are other former winners of this event playing this week who hail from South Africa.
South Africans Dean Burmester and Thriston Lawrence look to claim victory on home soil at this event for the first time as well.
Other notable golfers teeing it up this week include Laurie Canter, Matti Schmid, Tom Mckibbin, Romain Langasque and Jorge Campillo.
Spaniards Pablo Larrazabal (2019) and Alvaro Quiros (2006) are the other two former winners of this event to be playing this week.
The Course
Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa is one of the most visibly appealing golf courses in the entire world.
It sits on the edge of Kruger National Park and the camera often captures surrounding wildlife that include leopards, impalas, zebras, crocodiles, hippos and many more native species.
It is a Gary Player design that was opened in 1996 and plays as a Par 72 at 7,249 yards.
There was no event in 2017 as this course underwent an extensive and complete overhaul.
In that overhaul, the previous Kikuyu fairways and rough were changed to a cynodon warm-season Bermuda grass.
Due to this, the fairways now run much faster than ever before which brings many of the course’s bunkers into play.
The fairways featured this week are undulating and lined with natural bushes and trees. There are many water hazards that come into play this week off-the-tee as well.
The greens were also changed from Creeping Bent to a genetically engineered ultradwarf Bermuda called Champion G-12. That grass is the same strain planted at Quail Hollow prior to the 2017 US PGA Championship.
Through all of this, the course hardly changed visually but the changes from the kikuyu to Bermuda grass has sped the track up significantly, especially the greens.
The changes have helped increase the overall course difficulty and help keep the scoring at bay.
The signature hole here at Leopard Creek is the par five 13th that features a green that overlooks Crocodile River.
This course plays on the shorter side of the DP World Tour average.
Most of the yardage this week is made up of the four par fives which are also shorter holes compared to the DP World Tour average. Most of them can be reached in two for most of the week.
The Weather
As of the time of writing this, the weather looks clear across all four days as there is currently a zero-percent chance of precipitation in the forecast. Temperatures will be blazing hot for three-of-the-four days as well. As it stands, Thursday calls for a temperature of 103, Friday 106 and Sunday 100. Temperatures will dip to 83-degrees on Sunday as cloud cover is anticipated. Winds will peak at 11 miles-per-hour for both Saturday and Sunday but will range from eight-to-nine miles-per-hour for Thursday and Friday.
Key Stats
Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)
Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT) / Putts per Greens in Regulation (Putts per GIR)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT)
Scrambling
Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)
Par Four Average Scoring
Betting Card
Tom Mckibbin (+3300)
I’m opening my card once again with Tom Mckibbin. He didn’t have the best of showings last week in his 2025 DP World Tour season debut with a 60th overall finish. However, prior to that he finished the past season with an 11th at the DP World Tour Championship and a T10th at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Mckibbin finished the last season seventh on Tour in SG: OTT, 19th in SG: PUTT, 21st in par four average scoring, 25th in scrambling, 28th in GIR%, 38th in putts per GIR and 63rd in SG: APP.
Angel Ayora (+6600)
A recent betting favorite, the 20-year-old Spaniard placed T6th at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and T23rd at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open to kickstart his 2025 DP World Tour season. He capped his 2024 Challenge Tour season with a T2nd at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final. He also placed T2nd at the Hangzhou Open, fourth at the Italian Open, won the Rosa Challenge Tour and placed T4th at the Vierumaki Finish Challenge dating back to August. On the season he is currently first on Tour in scrambling, 15th in par four average scoring, 22nd in SG: OTT, 24th in Putts per GIR, 27th in SG: PUTT, 32nd in GIR% and 41st in SG: APP.
John Parry (+7500)
The seasoned Englishman Parry was on a tear last season on the Challenge Tour, winning three times. He won the Italian Challenge Open, Blot Open de Bretagne and the Delhi Challenge. He capped off the season with a T9th at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final. He opened the season with a T8th at the BMW Australian PGA Championship as well. On the season he is currently fourth in par four average scoring, sixth in GIR%, 23rd in Putts per GIR, 26th in SG: PUTT, 38th in SG: OTT, 45th in SG: APP and 50th in scrambling.
Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (+10000)
Von Dellingshausen opened his 2025 DP World Tour campaign with a T24th at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and a 19th at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open. Prior to that, we last saw him on the DP World Tour at the Omega European Masters where he finished T17th among a star-studded field. He also placed T22nd at the Italian Open. On the Challenge Tour, he capped his 2024 season with a T14th at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Finale, T16th at the Hangzhou Open, third at the Italian Challenge Open and T5th at the Rosa Challenge Tour. He’s currently eighth on Tour in scrambling, tenth in par four average scoring, 14th in GIR%, 37th in SG: OTT, 38th in SG: APP, 39th in putts per GIR and 42nd in SG: PUTT.
Matthew Southgate (+15000)
Southgate had some quality performances down the stretch of his 2024 DP World Tour season. He placed T40th at the Genesis Championship, T27th at the FedEx Open de France and T43rd at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. To kickstart his 2025 campaign, he has gone T15 at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and T20th at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open. He is currently third on Tour in scrambling, eighth in SG: PUTT, 15th in par four average scoring, 26th in putts per GIR, 29th in SG: APP and 50th in both GIR% and SG: OTT.