Take a course carved out of an extinct African volcano, add a dozen of the world's top golfers, season with a million dollar first prize, and you have a tournament that even the cynics would have to admit is unique.
Headed by the winners of three of this year's four majors, the Million Dollar Challenge tees off over the sculptured 6,938-metre Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, South Africa, today.
Two-time US Open winner Ernie Els is the local favourite after losing last year in a play-off with Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, but even with South African sentiment riding high behind him, Els faces a daunting task.
Montgomerie, who reversed his 1994 US Open play-off defeat at the hands of Els last year after the pair had deadlocked on 274, is back to defend his title in the elite, hand-picked field.
The only major names in golf missing from the 12-man invitational tournament are Tiger Woods and Greg Norman.
British Open winner Justin Leonard is one of two US debutantes alongside US PGA champion Davis Love III in a field that includes five former winners.
The American pair are joined by fellow-countrymen Mark O'Meara, Phil Mickleson and Tom Lehman.
Lehman has especially fond memories of South Africa, as the local tour gave the 1996 British Open champion his first taste of a professional tournament circuit. He arrives $300,000 richer after last weekend's Skins Game at La Quinta, California.
Past winners in the field include the amiable German Bernhard Langer, winner in 1985 and 1991 and making his 11th appearance, Britain's Nick Faldo (1994), Welshman Ian Woosnam (1987 winner) and Zimbabwe's Nick Price.
Price won in 1993, when he shot a 24-under-par tournament record 264 to leave the pack spread-eagled behind him.
The other debutante in the field is the flamboyant Swede Jesper Parnevik, raring to beat Leonard after the American snatched the British Open title from him at Royal Troon earlier this year.
With no half-way cut and the pressure off, the chase for the biggest prize in golf promises to be as competitive as last year, when even Corey Pavin, who finished last, was four-under-par.
