Danny Willett aiming to step up his Ryder Cup bid

Danny Willett is relishing 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.

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.

Shane Lowry, who remains at 21st in the latest world rankings, is the lone Irishman in the field and finishes off his year's work in the tournament known as "Africa's Major"

The 28-year-old holder Willett 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 1.9 million. 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.

“This next year I’ll be knuckling down to playing in Europe and trying to get another couple of wins, getting in contention and becoming familiar with being in contention a lot,” Willett said.

“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.”

Same strategy

One thing Willett will not be changing is his approach to this week’s event, having secured victory 12 months ago with an 18-under-par total of 270 thanks to closing rounds of 65 and 66.

“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,” said Willett.

Another player looking to boost his chances of a place on the European team at Hazeltine is Scotland's Russell Knox, who 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.