Leopard Creek returns to the schedule after a year-long hiatus and it's a warm welcome back to one of South Africa's most iconic courses, one which surely won't have changed too much despite renovations which mean it's two years since Brandon Stone romped to victory over compatriot Richard Sterne.

Set on the boundary of Kruger National Park, this is a popular and familiar venue and one where the home contingent have dominated, winning each of the last six renewals. In fact just five nationalities have triumphed here since the rain-affected inaugural edition went to England's Anthony Wall, with Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Marcel Siem and Alvaro Quiros among the successful foreign raiders.

Stone is far from the only South African to add a processional flavour to this end-of-year safari. His six-shot win is half the margin Charl Schwartzel managed in 2012, before winning it by four in 2015, while Branden Grace had seven shots in hand over Louis Oosthuizen in 2014. After the latter scored by six on Sunday, you'd be forgiven for thinking the others need not apply.

Indeed it is these four players around whom attentions should be focused, and with Oosthuizen at risk of an emotional letdown at a course which has foxed him many times before, and Schwartzel still clearly lacking confidence in his swing to go with more familiar putting woes, it's Grace and Stone who make most appeal.

The former is very close with Oosthuizen off the course and was the only player to get close to him on itduring the final round of the SA Open, but his failure to see the effort through sums up a frustrating 2018. It surely wasn't nerves that cost this prolific champion and at 9/1, with frailties remaining in his game, he can be overlooked.

Stone, on the other hand, finished with a real flourish at Randpark and that sets him up perfectly for this de facto title defence.

The youngster, long thought of as the heir apparent to those mentioned and capable of challenging at the very top of the sport, was in a league of his own here two years ago. Particularly impressive was the way he talked up a third-round pairing with Schwartzel before beating his more decorated rival, and from that point onward it was merely a case of how far.

Victory in the Scottish Open this summer, one which came courtesy of a final-round 60 which ought to have been the European Tour's first ever 59, represented another step up the ladder and this 25-year-old has so much more to give.