Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, the defending champion, will headline the exclusive 12-man field for this year's Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City in South Africa.
Lee Westwood after his Sun City triumph last year
Ranked at one and two respectively in the world, the two Englishmen will be joined at this limited-field $5 million event at the highly-rated Gary Player Country Club by four of the game's most recent major champions in Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke.
The rest of the field is made up of South Korea's Kim Kyung-tae and European Tour regulars Anders Hansen, Simon Dyson, Thomas Bjorn and Robert Karlsson and a solitary American, Jason Dufner, who finished runner-up to Keegan Bradley at this year's US PGA Championship.
Westwood, still seeking his first major, but in a rich vein of form, nevereless, will be looking to defend the title that he won in resounding fashion last year with a commanding eight-stroke victory over Tim Clark.
The tournament coincides with Tiger Woods' Chevron World Challenge and falls between the World Cup of Golf in China and the European Tour's Race to Dubai finale.
With that in mind, tournament organizers are saying that they are delighted with the quality of the field.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic (with the field)," tournament director Alastair Rope said on Thursday.
"The reason is obvious. We have the world number one and number two."
golf365.com