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Cape Town - Italy's Francesco Molinari has been in good form on the European Tour this year and anxious to get going at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City.
Tee times: Nedbank Golf Challenge - Round 1
READ: Bookies fancy Englishman for Sun City glory
Despite the Italian's winless season, he has had some good finishes of late, which included a tied for second in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in August.
"I'm happy to be here. Obviously it's always a nice week, great weather, a really good golf course, and a great field. So I'm looking forward to the week," said Molinari on Tuesday.
When it comes to playing the 'challenging' Gary Player Country Club golf course, Molinari believes that battling the wind and being the on the good side of the hole will be important to succeed in Sun City.
"It's a good course. Obviously the kikuyu grass is quite different from what we get in Europe. One of the things is going to be to judge the lies and the distances because you can get big flyers from the rough. So hitting fairways is important," he said.
"The greens are quite small and slopey, so you want to be on the good side of the hole. The breeze can be challenging, too.
"It's a tough course but obviously there are some scoring opportunities out there and hopefully I'm going to take advantage of those."
Molinari, who currently sits ninth in the Race to Dubai rankings, is looking to finish off on a high and ruffle a few feathers on top of the leaderboard.
"I'm looking forward to this week and next week obviously to try and improve my ranking," said the world No 21.
"It won't be easy because there's a lot of good players up there but obviously I have the chance to finish quite high up in The Race to Dubai. I'm going to do my best to do that."
Molinari tees off on Thursday in Round 1 alongside England's Ross Fisher and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen at 10:50.
