“I’m excited to tee it up at the Nedbank Golf Challenge for the first time this December. It’s
an event that has a lot of history, a great list of winners and, of course, the support of Gary
Player, so I’m sure it will be a great week.”
Norwegian star Hovland will make his debut in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and indeed on South African fairways.
After winning the US Amateur and rising to number one in the world as an amateur, Hovland lived up to his promise when he became the first Norwegian winner on the PGA TOUR in the 2020 Puerto Rico Open.
He has won seven times on the PGA TOUR, including his latest victory this year in the Valspar Championship. He’s also had five top-10s in the Majors.
This year Hovland made his third consecutive Ryder Cup appearance for Team Europe at Bethpage Black. The 27-year-old made history during Europe’s last victory in Rome as he and fellow Scandinavian Ludvig Åberg recorded a 9&7 victory over World Number One Scottie Scheffler and five-time Major winner Brooks Koepka for the largest margin of victory in a foursomes match in the Ryder Cup.
Hovland is a fan of heavy metal music, and growing up enjoyed sports such as football and taekwondo as well as golf, which he started playing at the age of 11.
As a young golfer his hero was Sergio Garcia and he’ll no doubt take inspiration from the Spaniard’s two victories in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.