Branden Grace can make solid start to his Sun City title defence

Sky Sports Golf, 8am Thursday

Rory McIlroy, Branden Grace and Haotong Li form the marquee first-round threeball on the opening day of the Nedbank Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club, Sun City, South Africa.

Defending champion Grace will be joined by former world number one McIlroy and last week's Turkish Airlines Open playoff loser Li at 10.51am local time (8.51am UK and Ireland).

Sam Horsfield, who received worldwide condemnation for how long he was standing over the ball before hitting shots in Turkey last week, is in the opening threeball on the first tee, so there could be early traffic jams unless the Englishman speeds up alongside Martin Kaymer and Danny Willett at GPCC.

First-round threeball punters are pointed towards gritty Grace in the glamour match. He has not been firing on all cylinders in recent weeks, but has a magnificent record on home turf, relishes this course and seems likely to provide a decent title defence.

Recommendation
B Grace
1pt 21-10 Betfred, Paddy Power

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