Alfred Dunhill Championship: Course and current form stats

• Bezuidenhout defends at Leopard Creek

• Third straight week in South Africa

• Otaegui aiming for fifth Spanish win at Creek

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The DP World Tour remains in South Africa for a third straight tournament, with the action switching to the east of the country for this week's Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The tournament will once again be played at Leopard Creek, which has hosted more DP World Tour events than any other South African course.

This will be the 17th occasion that Leopard Creek has appeared on the 'European' calendar, while also being co-sanctioned by South Africa's Sunshine Tour.

After back-to-back weeks in and around Johannesburg, the golfers have travelled 260 miles east, and marginally north, to pitch up on the edge of Kruger National Park.

Course Characteristics

Leopard Creek, which was designed by Gary Player and opened 26 years ago, made its European Tour debut in 2004.

This picturesque venue is situated on the southern boundary of the vast Kruger National Park.

It is a gently undulating layout that incorporates many of the characteristics of the local area, which means there is no shortage of trees, bushes and dense vegetation.

The tournament was not staged in either 2017 - because the course underwent extensive changes to its playing surfaces - or 2021, when Covid returned to haunt the Rainbow Nation.

Water comes into play on eight holes and, during the recent renovation, the majority of changes involved replacing turf on both fairways and greens.

Where once was Kikuya, the fairways have now been sown with the faster-running Bermudagrass.

As for putting surfaces, the original Creeping Bent is now ultradwarf Bermuda, while a number of fairway bunkers were repositioned. Routing remains untouched.

Prior to hosting the Alfred Dunhill Championship for the first time 18 years ago, Leopard Creek staged South Africa's Tour Championship on four occasions.

Leopard Creek, which has generally been a good venue for the longer hitters, is approximately 30 miles from the Mozambique border.

Latest betting for this week's Alfred Dunhill Championship

Stroke Averages

Lowest 12 At Leopard Creek (Since 1.1.2015)
Average .... (Rounds)
69.86: Charl Schwartzel (14)
70.00: Scott Jamieson (16)
70.63: Branden Grace (16)
70.75: Brandon Stone (20)
71.21: Keith Horne (14)
71.25: Richard Sterne (20)
71.25: Erik Van Rooyen (12)
71.33: Jbe Kruger (12)
71.50: Zander Lombard (14)
71.56: Thomas Aiken (16)
71.70: Marcus Armitage (10)
71.86: George Coetzee (14)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

Four To Watch

Christiaan Bezuidenhout: The defending champion from 2020 opted to sit out last week's national open at Blair Atholl. In his most recent two starts he tied-fifth at Sun City and stood on the podium in Joburg.

Louis Oosthuizen: Makes only his second DP World Tour start since The Open at St Andrews, having signed up for the new Saudi-backed golf tour. Was runner-up at Leopard Creek in 2014.

Adrian Otaegui: A winner at Valderrama in October - which was his fourth career victory on the DP World Tour - and is the highest-ranked non-South African in this week's field. There has been four Spanish successes at Leopard Creek.

Charl Schwartzel: No one has a Leopard Creek record to match the 38-year-old from Johannesburg. Is a four-time winner at the course, a four-time runner-up, was once third and also fourth. Tied-ninth in the national open on Sunday and made history by winning the first-ever event on the Saudi-backed golf tour a few months ago.

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut