Frittelli out first, Louis and George tee off late

Last week’s runner-up in Turkey, Dylan Frittelli, will open the 2017 Nedbank Golf Challenge alongside English duo Ian Poulter and Graeme Storm.

Frittelli, who won the Lyoness Open, is enjoying the best season of his career and will be looking to add Rolex Series riches to his already healthy bank account this week in Sun City.

The 27-year-old told Compleat Golfer that he is looking forward to playing on home soil in front of local crowds this week in a rare appearance in South Africa. Frittelli has no real experience at the Gary Player Country Club, last venturing out at the venue 10 years ago. He is joined by Ryder Cup hero Poulter, himself enjoying a rejuvenation, and SA Open winner Storm, who famously held off Rory McIlroy at Glendower in January.

The trio tee off on the first at 9:00 on Thursday.

Haydn Porteous is the next local hope on the tee with England’s Matthew Southgate and Asian star Haotong Li. Porteous will be looking to make his recent habit of fast starts last to the weekend after coming out of the blocks firing at the HSBC Champions in China, and at last week’s Turkish Airlines Open.

At 9:55 attention turns to Branden Grace, who is in something of a feature group with Thorbjorn Olesen and top rookie Jordan Smith. Grace is still looking for his first win of the season and enjoys a very good record on home soil, especially at this event where he finished third last year, and fourth in 2015. Off the 1oth tee at the same time is Richard Sterne, who plays with Matt Wallace and Gregory Bourdy.

Charl Schwartzel has 2010 and 2011 winner Lee Westwood and three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington, who ran close last week, for company at 10:17. At the same time, Brandon Stone starts his challenge off the 10th with Marc Warren and Soren Kjeldsen.

Another contender last week, Nicolas Colsaerts, joins big-hitting Dean Burmester and Andy Sullivan just before 10:30. Burmester is keen to end the drought of local winners this week.

‘Every little boy that plays golf in South Africa is watching the Nedbank, and we watched Ernie and Retief and Trevor and all the guys. Price, back in the day. And here we are. We’re quite a few South Africans in the field, so hopefully we can keep the trophy right here at home,’ he said.

Ross Fisher and Francesco Molinari join local favourite Louis Oosthuizen at 10:50. Oosthuizen was T9 here last time out and has good memories of the course (he won here in 2007), but will be looking to end his run of high-profile runner-up finishes (The Players and The PGA Championship) on home soil.

George Coetzee is off the 10th at the same time as Oosthuizen and is likely to be a strong contender this week after a resurgence in form. He is statistically trending in the right direction and will be looking to put his stamp on things this week, where he is joined by David Drysdale and David Horsey.

Last off is the feature group containing defending champion Alex Noren, Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood and impressive Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello.