The 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player will return to a transformed Gary Player Country Club this December, with the most significant course redesign in the tournament’s history creating a new championship test for one of world golf’s most recognisable events.
The course transformation is the headline development ahead of the 44th edition of “Africa’s Major”. Alongside the new layout, Sun International has confirmed the first five players in an exceptionally strong opening field, while Sun City has expanded the tournament into a broader destination experience that continues after the final putt each day. At the centre of the course redesign is an entirely new 470-metre par-four 1st hole.
Built parallel to the original and climbing higher up the mountainside, it represents the most significant single change to the Gary Player Country Club layout in the tournament’s history.
The site of the old 1st will become the course’s first dedicated practice range. The transformation also includes new professional tees, refurbished bunkers, an enlarged dam on the 2nd and a newly opened view of the waterfall from the 9th. Together, the changes are designed to sharpen the championship test while retaining the character and tournament pedigree of a course that has been central to the Nedbank Golf Challenge since 1981. The first field announcement adds immediate sporting credibility. Major champions Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau will be joined by South Africa’s Casey Jarvis, defending champion Kristoffer Reitan and Marco Penge, the winner of The Seve Ballesteros Players’ Player of the Year Award for 2025, with further player announcements to follow. Rose returns after finishing runner-up in 2007, while Jarvis arrives following back-to-back DP World Tour victories this season. Reitan returns to defend his title, with Penge adding further international pedigree to the opening field.
“The Nedbank Golf Challenge has always been one of the highlights of the Sun City calendar, and the golf remains the main attraction,” says Brett Hoppe, Resort General Manager at Sun City. “The changes to the Gary Player Country Club give the world’s best players a new challenge, while the expanded programme across the resort gives spectators more reasons to stay longer and experience everything Sun City has to offer once play has finished.”
Championship golf will remain at the heart of the week, with Sun City adding a stronger after-hours programme so visitors can move from the course into dining, live music and nightlife without leaving the destination. Four nights of headline entertainment are planned during tournament week. The programme includes a +LIVE+ Concert at the Superbowl on Saturday, 5 December; and The Final Putt! with Scorpion Kings and DJ Shimza at Sun Park on Sunday, 6 December. The broader resort offering is designed to complement the championship, giving visitors more ways to build a full Sun City stay around “Africa’s Major”.
The expanded experience builds on more than four decades of sporting heritage and reinforces the Nedbank Golf Challenge’s position as a major international golf event with a distinctive Sun City setting.
The Golf Finishes. The Party Doesn’t
The 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player, the 44th edition of “Africa’s Major”, takes place at Gary Player Country Club, Sun City, from Thursday, 3 December to Sunday, 6 December 2026.Tickets and hospitality packages are on sale from 18 August, with options ranging from general admission to premium hospitality.
Visit the Nedbank website for more info.
