Alfred Dunhill Championship draws strong field of former champions and rising stars

Dean Burmester. Sunshine Tour

Dean Burmester will return to South African fairways in December in search of the one title he still desperately wants to win – the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

Burmester has won every one of the current Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournaments in South Africa, except for the Alfred Dunhill Championship, and he will compete at Royal Johannesburg from 11-14 December with a firm goal to win and complete his own co-sanctioned sweep of victories.

As the Alfred Dunhill Championship returns to Johannesburg where it was first played from 2000 to 2004, the tournament has drawn a field deep in talent with former champions and rising stars.

Burmester forms part of a strong South African challenge taking part on Royal Johannesburg’s famed East Course.

Shaun Norris, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Ockie Strydom have all confirmed their places in this year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship as past winners of the tournament. Norris is looking to become only the third player in Alfred Dunhill Championship history to successfully defend his title.

Aldrich Potgieter adds to the South African challenge as the country’s latest star, having secured his maiden victory on the PGA TOUR this season.

The Sunshine Tour’s top three players on the current Courier Guy Order of Merit – Luis Carrera, Herman Loubser and Pieter Moolman – will also be in action. Carrera also currently leads the Tour’s Fortress Rookie of the Year standings.

JC Ritchie, the winner of the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Mallorca rankings this year, will lead a new wave of South Africans who have recently earned their DP World Tour cards for the upcoming season, including Daniel van Tonder, Zander Lombard and Michael Hollick.

The 2025 field will also include the best of South African amateur golf.

Both Christiaan Maas and Daniel Bennett will head to Royal Johannesburg having made history this year as members of the South African team that claimed the country’s first ever victory in the prestigious Eisenhower Trophy.

Maas added to this triumph as he also went on to become the first South African winner of the individual title.

The Alfred Dunhill Championship forms part of the DP World Tour’s Opening Swing for its 2026 season.

The change in tournament venue is for this year only to allow the championship’s traditional home, Leopard Creek, a period of recovery following its hosting of the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Championship and The R&A Africa Amateur Championship in a short space of time over the intensely hot summer months.