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On a July evening in 1981, under the fluorescent glow of newsroom lights, a newspaper editor would have been busy finalising the proofs before deadline.

He would probably have smiled at the report on the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, and the reported 700 million that watched it.

Then he would read the words “Golfing Coup of the Century”. A golf tournament was offering the first million-dollar purse, and a first prize of $500 000.

The inaugural field was a strong one, including Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Severiano Ballesteros.

And it was off to the best of starts when in the summer of 1981, Miller and Ballesteros battled it out over nine extra playoff holes before the American took the title.

In 1982, the field grew to 10 players, and again it went to a playoff – this time between Raymond Floyd and Craig Stadler and with Floyd eventually walking off with the $300 000 cheque.

The following two tournaments were dominated by the most exciting new star in the game – Ballesteros as he became the first player to successfully defend his title at Sun City.

In 1985, German Bernhard Langer did what only a handful of players have managed to do throughout the history of the Nedbank Golf Challenge and won on his debut in the tournament, after winning his maiden Masters title earlier that year.

A year later and “Africa’s Major” had its first African champion when Zimbabwean Mark McNulty won by three strokes.

In 1987, the tournament took its biggest gamble of all when it awarded a $1 million winner-takes-all prize for the field of only eight golfers. Welshman Ian Woosnam’s stunning eagle on the 17th hole saw him take home the $1 million cheque.

And then 1988 and 1989 South African golf celebrated its first champions as first Fulton Allem and then David Frost each took home what was now a $1 million cheque for the winner and then sizeable payouts for the rest of the field as well.