SUNSHINE TOUR

(Redirected from South African PGA Tour)

The 'Sunshine Tour' is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern Africa. For much of its history it was known either as the 'South African Tour' or the 'FNB Tour', but it rebranded itself in an attempt to broaden its appeal. A large majority of the tour events are still staged in South Africa.
The tour is one of the six leading men's tours which make up the International Federation of PGA Tours, but it offers much less prize money than some of the leading tours, and leading Southern African golfers always prefer to play on the PGA Tour or the European Tour if they can qualify to do so, typically returning to play in Sunshine Tour events a couple of times a year.
The tour's three leading official money events, the South African Open, the Dunhill Championship, and the Joburg Open are co-sanctioned with the European Tour in order to attract stronger fields. Each season is scheduled across two calendar years and concludes with a tour championship in late February. The 2005/06 season included 21 official money events. The South African Open and the Dunhill Championship had purses of €1 million each and the other 19 had purses designated in South African Rand and ranging from 250,000 rand to 2 million rand. The tour also co-sanctions the US$5 million HSBC Champions Tournament in China, but it is not an official money event.
There was at least one tournament every month of the year except July, but the main events took place in the South African summer from November to February. There are separate qualifying schools in March and in late October/early November, effectively dividing the tour into two series of events. The March to October series is a developmental program for emerging, mainly local, players, held when all the leading Southern African players are plying their trade in other parts of the world. The November to February series attracts almost all the top South Africans, even if only for one or two events, and also some good quality international players.
The tour has been open to non-White players since 1991. The first three Black winners were John Mashego at the 1991 Bushveld Classic, Lindani Ndwandwe at the 2001 Western Cape Classic and Tongoona Charamba at the 2006 SAA Pro-Am Invitational.^[1]
The richest golf tournament in South Africa is the Nedbank Golf Challenge, an unofficial money but Sunshine Tour-recognized tournament.

Contents

Schedule

Order of Merit winners

References

See also

External link

Schedule

The table below shows the main events of the 2006-07 schedule, defined as those which carry world ranking points. Prize funds shown in brackets do not count towards the Order of Merit. For a complete list of Sunshine Tour sanctioned events see the official site.
The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of official money Sunshine Tour events he had won up to and including that tournament, including wins in the developmental events not shown here. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.

Dates	Tournament	Venue (in South Africa unless stated)	Prize fund	Winner	Winner's world ranking points	Notes
16-19 Nov	HSBC Champions Tournament	Shanghai Sheshan International GC, China	(USD 5,000,000)	Yang Yong-Eun (N/A)	52	Co-sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours.
16-19 Nov	Limpopo Classic	Polokwane Golf Club	R1,000,000	Bradford Vaughan (8)	12
30 Nov - 3 Dec	Nedbank Golf Challenge	Gary Player CC, Sun City	(USD 4,385,000)	Jim Furyk (N/A)	38	Twelve man invitational event
7-10 Dec	Alfred Dunhill Championship	Leopard Creek, Malelane	€1,000,000	Álvaro Quirós (N/A)	18	Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
14-17 Dec	South African Airways Open	Humewood GC	€1,000,000	Ernie Els (14)	32	Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
11-14 Jan	Joburg Open	Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC	€1,000,000	Ariel Canete (N/A)	20	Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
25-28 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Sun City	R1,600,000	Louis Oosthuizen (2)	14
1-4 Feb	Nashua Masters	Wild Coast Sun CC	R1,200,000	Jean Hugo (5)	14
15-18 Feb	Vodacom Championship	Pretoria CC	R2,200,000	Richard Sterne (2)	14
22-25 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Country Club Johannesburg	R2,250,000	Louis Oosthuizen (3)	14

Order of Merit winners

The Order of Merit winners are shown below. Players are required to play in a minimum number of tournaments to qualify for the Order of Merit. As the richest events on the tour (those co-sanctioned by the European Tour) tend to be won by players who don't play enough events to qualify, in recent years the Order of Merit winner has often not actually been the player who won most money in Sunshine Tour sanctioned events.
:''This list is incomplete.''

Season	Player	Country	Earnings (R)
2006/07	Charl Schwartzel		1,585,117.41
2005/06	Charl Schwartzel		1,207,459.70
2004/05	Charl Schwartzel		1,635,850.44
2003/04	Darren Fichardt		726,544.74
2002/03	Trevor Immelman		2,044,279.45
2001/02	Tim Clark		1,669,900.71
2000/01	Mark McNulty		1,603,481.36
1999/00	Darren Fichardt		558,735.17
1998/99	David Frost		1,189,761.60
1997/98	Mark McNulty		589,052.50
1996/97	Mark McNulty		556,226.57
1995/96	Wayne Westner		709,388.66
1994/95	Ernie Els		460,488.35
1993/94	Tony Johnstone		297,358.75
1992/93	Mark McNulty		250,079.16
1991/92	Ernie Els
1990/91
1989/90
1988/89	Tony Johnstone
1987/88
1986/87	Mark McNulty
1985/86	Mark McNulty
1984/85	Mark McNulty
1983/84	Gavan Levenson
1982/83	Nick Price
1981/82	Mark McNulty
1980/81	Mark McNulty
1979/80	Gary Player
1978/79	Hugh Baiocchi
1977/78
1976/77	Gary Player
1975/76
1974/75
1973/74	Hugh Baiocchi

References

1. Charamba rewrites history at SAA Pro-Am Invitational, ''pgatour.co.za'', 22 May, 2006.

See also

★ Professional golf tours

External link

★ Official site