Alfred Dunhill Championship 2024: Course and current form stats

• Leopard Creek: A firm, fast and undulating parkland course

• Bezuidenhout 9/1 can secure second win at the Creek

• Burmester 8/1 ready to claim third title of 2024

Tournament and Course Notes

• No South African course has hosted a DP World Tour event more times than Leopard Creek Country Club. This week's instalment is the 19th and, once again, will be co-sanctioned by South Africa's Sunshine Tour;

• Designed by Gary Player and opened 28 years ago, Leopard Creek made its European Tour debut in 2004. It is a picturesque location, situated on the southern boundary of the vast Kruger National Park and approximately 30 miles from the Mozambique border;

• This gently undulating parkland layout incorporates many of the characteristics of the local area. All of which means there is no shortage of trees, bushes or dense vegetation. There was no tournament at the Creek in either 2017 (when the course underwent an extensive renovation) or 2021 (after Covid returned to haunt the Rainbow Nation);

• Water comes into play on eight holes, while the aforementioned renovation led to a change of 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. A number of fairway bunkers were also repositioned during the upgrade, although routing remains untouched;

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

Betfair Sportsbook

Strong Home Challenge

With nine of South Africa's top-10 ranked golfers teeing-up this week, the likelihood of a home victory looms large. And especially in a field that appears to be mediocre at best.

This week's entries include a handful of pros who have played most of 2024 on the Saudi-backed LIV Tour.

These are defending champion Louis Oosthuizen 15/2, four-time winner at the Creek Charl Schwartzel 20/1 and Dean Burmester 8/1.

Oosthuizen ended the LIV season sixth in the overall standings and, two weeks' ago, he stood on the podium at an Asian Tour event in Qatar.

In that event he finished two shots behind Schwartzel whose record at Leopard Creeks is nothing short of amazing: Ten podium finishes in all.

As for Burmester, the 35-year-old finished ninth in the LIV standings thanks largely to a victory in Miami.

He also won on South Africa's Sunshine Tour during November and the one black mark against him is his mixed record at the Creek.

One other home player who must be taken seriously is Christiaan Bezuidenhout 9/1. The 30-year-old is a former champion at Leopard Creek where he also finished third last year.

As the year draws to a close, Bezuidenhout should feel fresher than most of his rivals this week.

Since playing in the Tour Championship 15 weeks ago, his only competitive outings have been at the Presidents Cup and in the Nedbank Challenge which finished on Sunday.

Overseas Contenders

Among the non-South Africans in this week's field, three potential contenders for the title are Romain Langasque 22/1, Julien Guerrier 35/1 and Laurie Canter 20/1.

Langasque arrives at Leopard Creek after finishing second in Sun City over the weekend.

It was the Frenchman's fourth podium of 2024, which leaves him at a career-high No 79 in the world.

Guerrier was another top-10 finisher at the Nedbank Challenge and the 39-year-old appears to be full of confidence following his DP World Tour breakthrough victory in Spain during October.

Another player to claim their first 'European Tour' title this year is Canter who was third at Leopard Creek in 2022.

(Betfair Exchange: Check out the each-way odds for Leopard Creek)

Stroke Averages

Lowest 10 At Leopard Creek (2018-23)
Average .... (Rounds)
68.83: Louis Oosthuizen (12)
70.06: Scott Jamieson (16)
70.28: Christiaan Bezuidenhout (18)
70.33: Dylan Frittelli (12)
70.38: Christiaan Maas (8)
70.50: Matthew Baldwin (8)
70.50: Alexander Levy (8)
70.63: Joost Luiten (8)
70.67: Adrian Otaegui (12)
70.75: Jayden Trey Schaper (16)
Min. No. of Rounds = 8
Only those entered this week are included in table

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

The Punter's Guide And Tips For Leopard Creek