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Nedbank Golf Challenge

Fleetwood goes back-to-back in Sun City

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Tommy Fleetwood of England poses with the Nedbank Golf Challenge trophy after winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the 18th hole during Day Four of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on November 13, 2022 in Sun City, South Africa. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
Tommy Fleetwood of England poses with the Nedbank Golf Challenge trophy after winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the 18th hole during Day Four of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on November 13, 2022 in Sun City, South Africa. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Tommy Fleetwood held on to his crown at the Nedbank Golf Challenge after winning a thrilling battle with Ryan Fox down the stretch at the Gary Player Country Club.

The Englishman sealed his sixth DP World Tour victory three years after he last lifted the trophy in Sun City – with the event returning for the first time since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fleetwood shot a five-under-par 67 to finish on 11 under, one ahead of New Zealand’s Fox, who would have leapfrogged Rory Mcllroy at the top of the DP World Tour Rankings in Partnership with Rolex with a victory.

Fleetwood and Fox went into the final round three shots behind Rasmus Højgaard and Thomas Detry and the overnight leaders had only managed five holes when play was suspended due to lightning in the area.

Shortly after the restart, Højgaard went bogey-bogey-double bogey from the seventh, and Fleetwood and India’s Shubhankar Sharma took advantage, moving to ten under with birdies at the par-five ninth. Sharma posted another at the tenth while Fleetwood could only par as Fox joined the party.

Fox had started with six straight pars then birdied four in a row. He left himself around eight feet at the seventh and eighth, was unlucky with a long eagle putt at the ninth before tapping in, and then holed an 11-footer at the tenth.

Fleetwood slipped back after a bogey at the 12th but a moment of magic at the 14th turned things back in his favour. He was in the bunker left of the par-five in two and holed it for eagle it to jump to 11 under, and moments later, his playing partners Sharma and Fox rolled in their birdie putts and the three of them walked to the 15th tee sharing the lead.

Sharma’s challenge ended with bogeys at 16 and 17 and when Fleetwood tapped in for par at the last, after almost sinking a huge birdie attempt, Fox paid for a poor tee shot and posted his only bogey of the day at the worst possible moment.

Sharma finished in solo third at nine under par, with Scotland’s Richie Ramsay a shot further back. Christiaan Bezuidenhout was the highest placed home favourite at seven under par alongside Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg.

Player Quotes

Tommy Fleetwood:  It’s been a great week. I already had so many amazing memories of this place, such a great connection to it. This has just added to that.

It’s amazing we got four rounds in in the end and it was such a lovely feeling coming down the back nine with a chance and battling it out.

You draw on the good memories that you have round somewhere you’ve won. I felt good all day. I played great when we came back out (after the weather delay). The putter went cold, didn’t hit bad putts at all. 10, 11, 12, 13, I missed a few chances and happened to be in the group where the players were doing all the scoring, so it maybe felt a little worse.

It was touch and go on Thursday morning (whether he would play), then Saturday when we were up early (to finish the second round) I felt like I had nothing in me. Really poorly again.

The doctor here has been amazing. I just gave his little son the winning golf ball. Without him there was not a chance on Thursday I’d have played. I just thought, if I can just keep going a hole at a time.

It was great that I had a week that I was swinging it well. It wasn’t overly stressful for me and I just had in my mind to keep going… you never know what happens at the end of the week. It’s a nice feeling when you feel like you can press on at the end of the year, you are playing great, and you have a chance in these huge events.

I wish the guys at the top all the best, especially Foxy. He played fantastic when we played together on Thursday and again today. It was lovely to go against one of the best players in the world at the moment on the back nine.

Ryan Fox: I played great, didn’t miss a shot until 18, would have liked to have played 18 better and make Tommy work a bit harder. It’s an incredibly tough golf course to play down the stretch. Felt like I hit good shots, gave myself chances. Our whole group played well, all of us were there or thereabouts with three holes to play and Tommy was the one that held it together. Fair play to him.

Still really happy, don’t think I’ve finished inside the top 50 in three starts here, so if you had given me second at the start of the week, I would have taken it.

This golf course hasn’t treated me well. There are some intimidating shots coming down the stretch. After that break (for the weather) I hit some good shots early, hung in there nicely at the end apart from that one on 18. That’s all you want to do, give yourself a chance coming down the back nine. As we saw in 2019, anything can happen. Gave it a pretty good run.

I could have done a little bit better, but if you had given me second and closing the gap by a decent amount on Rory at the start of the week, I would have taken it. Still got some work to do – he’s the number one player in the world for a reason.

Just go out, try to beat the golf course and see what happens. Looking forward to it being in my hands a bit going into next week.

Round four scores