The Scottish foursome of Grant Forrest, Calum Hill, Connor Syme and Ewen Ferguson will kick off their 2016 DP World Tour season contesting week’s Gary Player honoured Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
The tartan four have a few weeks break since their 2025 in the Middle East in the closing two events of the Race to Dubai season.
It was a special year particularly for Hill and Syme with Hill superbly capturing the Joburg Open and with all of Scotland applauding the effort of Syme with the Fife golfer winning an emotional KLM Open.
SCOTTISH FOUR MAKING 2026 SEASON DEBUT …
foursome Grant Forrest @grantforrest93 , Connor Syme @connor_syme , Ewen Ferguson @EwboF & Calum Hill are no strangers Nedbank #NGC2025 host Gary Player ⛳️
Read: https://t.co/rhJiAVkoKU
#NGC2025 pic.twitter.com/yi4MOewNMT
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) December 3, 2025
Ferguson has contested the past three Nebank events with a best finish of T13th on debut in 2022 while Syme has also contest the event three times and with Forrest and Hill each in 2024 and ’23.
Heading the elite 66-player field is World No. 13 Viktor Hovland and teeing-up for a first occasion since mid-October and a T6th result in the India Championship/
The Norwegian is the highest-ranked of the 66 players teeing it up in Sun City but has been open about his many swing changes in recent seasons as he looks for the gains to take his game to even greater heights.
He branded Gary Player Country Club “no joke” after tackling it for the first time this week, perhaps suggesting it is not the best place to arrive without your A-game.
But despite his self-confessed struggles, he starts his season in South Africa off the back of four consecutive top 12s and without a missed cut since his victory at the PGA TOUR’s Valspar Championship in March.
“A little better,” he said of the current state of his game. “It’s kind of been a challenging period throughout the last two years but I think, even though I haven’t been super happy with the way I’ve swung it the past, even couple of months, I’ve started to get some consistent results.
“Played nicely at Wentworth, even had a nice finish to the FedExCup playoffs in the States, and in India, just about a month ago, another sixth place finish.
“So, things are trending in the right direction, and hopefully it just continue to build on that.”
Last year’s winning score of five under represented the toughest scoring at this event since it joined the DP World Tour schedule in 2013 by six shots as the Player-designed layout showed its teeth.
And Hovland is expecting to see every aspect of his game tested as he looks for a third DP World Tour victory.
