Danny Willett is enjoying a change of status as he looks to defend his Nedbank Golf Challenge title and take a massive step towards securing a Ryder Cup debut next year.
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Willett was 83rd in the world before his victory at Sun City 12 months ago but returns to South Africa ranked 20th – Justin Rose is the only higher-ranked Englishman – and fresh from finishing second on the 2015 Race to Dubai.
The 28-year-old is unsurprisingly one of the favourites in the 30-man field at the Gary Player Country Club, where a successful title defence would increase his Ryder Cup points tally to 1.9million.
Jamie Donaldson secured the final qualifying place for Gleneagles last year with 2.6million. And having turned down a PGA Tour card in order to maintain his focus on the European Tour, Willett wants to experience what it feels like to start events with more pressure on his shoulders.
Reigning @nedbanksport Golf Challenge champion @Danny_Willett helping switch the Christmas lights on at #NGC2015. pic.twitter.com/atTkGKFEM6
— ISM (@TeamISM) December 2, 2015
He said: “This next year I’ll be knuckling down playing in Europe and trying to get another couple of wins, getting in contention and becoming familiar with being in contention a lot.
“I want to see how I cope with the pressure of pitching up to events as one of the favourites and expecting to win. It’s going to put a different spin on how I approach things and how I cope with different situations.
“Depending on how next year goes I might take a PGA Tour card the following year. For the time being I’m concentrating on Europe and we’ll see where it takes us.”
One thing Willett will not be changing is his approach to this week’s event, having secured victory 12 months ago with an 18-underpar total of 270 thanks to closing rounds of 65 and 66.
He said: “If you want to win you’ve got to take the golf course on. If you’re happy with an average result you can play it conservatively and ease your way round, but I think I’ll have the same strategy and try to do something good again.
“The course sets up for people who hit it straight. If you can drive the ball well you’re giving yourself nine irons into greens, which are a lot easier to control than a six or seven iron when you’re hitting into small greens with the wind swirling round. I’ll be trying to be aggressive off the tee at the right times and take it from there.
“The reverse side is that if you don’t drive it well you’re going to make a few big numbers, but in a field of only 30 you’re going to have to shoot some good numbers, looking at the winning scores from previous years. If you settle for par you’re not getting anywhere.”
Scotland’s Russell Knox will make his first appearance as a full European Tour member at Sun City. Knox, 30, won the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai last month and would have earned more than 1.2million points in Ryder Cup qualifying if he had been a Tour member at the time.
