Ernie Els won’t make his debut in Tiger Woods’ tournament, after all.
The Big Easy withdrew from next month’s Northwestern Mutual World Challenge because of a scheduling conflict. He will instead compete in the 30-player Nedbank Golf Challenge, where he will make his record 17th appearance and first since 2010. He is a three-time winner of the event.
Els will be replaced in the 18-man field by Dustin Johnson, who recently won the WGC-HSBC Champions.
The tournament, scheduled for Dec. 5-8, invites players based on the Official World Ranking. It doesn’t count as an official PGA Tour event, but players can earn world-ranking points
Among the players who are still scheduled to tee it up: Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Steve Stricker and Keegan Bradley.