Nick Faldo to tee it up at Houghton

Six times major winner Nick Faldo has entered the Alfred Dunhill golf championship that will again be played at the Houghton Golf Club from January 18 to 21 next year.

Although he has been in the mist of a slump that started soon after he destroyed Greg Norman in a famous come-from-behind victory in the 1996 US Masters, the tall Englishman is likely to be a big attraction.

He can write three British Opens (1987, 1990, 1992) and three US Masters (1989, 1990, 1996) behind his name and for a number of years was the pre-eminent figure in world golf.

Faldo is no stranger to South Africa having first played out here as an amateur in 1975 before cutting his teeth as a professional golfer by winning the ICL Tournament at Kensington in 1979.

Faldo has recently shown signs that he is re-kindling the form that made him such a formidable competitor and will be hoping that a visit to South Africa will again provide him with the impetus to string together four good rounds.

Co-sanctioned by both the European and the Sunshine Tours the Alfred Dunhill championship has also already drawn confirmed entries from the like of Retief Goosen, David Frost, Tony Johnstone and Sunday’s winner of the Zimbabwean Open Mark McNulty, a man who looks to be getting back to the form that made him the most prolific winner of money and titles on the Sunshine Tour.

In a Ryder Cup year and as a tournament counting towards the European Order of Merit the Alfred Dunhill is also likely to attract entries from a number of top performers on that tour – particularly the younger brigade hoping for a fast start to the season to eliminate any worries about retaining their cards at the end of the year.

In this regard much interest will centre of the performance of Desvonde Botes following his recent victory in the European Tour’s qualifying school.

Still the youngest winner of the South African amateur, Botes set a new low-scoring record for the 108-hole contest as he carded a 15-under-par total in Spain and might finally be ready to realise the rich promise he showed as a teenager.

Another attraction to the field will be an Audi motorcar up for grabs for a hole-in-one at the short 15th hole during the final round.

Tickets for the championship will be available at the entrance gates to Houghton and have been reasonably priced at R20 for the first two rounds and R30 for the weekend. A season ticket costs R80. Children of 16 and under, accompanied by an adult, will be admitted free.

The South African Alfred Dunhill championship is given extra lustre by being twinned with the new Alfred Dunhill Links championship, that replaces the Alfred Dunhill Cup, and which will be held over three links courses in Scotland in October 2001.