2004–05 Sunshine Tour

The 2004–05 Sunshine Tour was the 34th season of the Sunshine Tour (formerly the Southern Africa Tour), the main professional golf tour in South Africa since it was formed in 1971.

2004–05 Sunshine Tour season

Duration	11 March 2004 (2004-03-11) – 27 February 2005 (2005-02-27)
Number of official events	22
Most wins	Thomas Aiken (3)
Order of Merit	Charl Schwartzel
Rookie of the Year	Garry Houston
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2004–05 season.^[1]

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner[lower-alpha 1]	OWGR points	Other tours[lower-alpha 2]	Notes
14 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Zambia	€110,000	Michael Kirk (1)	10	CHA
27 Mar	FNB Botswana Open	Botswana	250,000	Barry Painting (1)	n/a
2 Apr	Parmalat Classic	Eastern Cape	200,000	Justin Walters (1)	n/a
8 May	Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open	Swaziland	400,000	Nic Henning (3)	n/a
29 May	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pezula	Western Cape	300,000	Patrick O'Brien (1)	n/a		New tournament series
12 Jun	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Schoeman Park	North West	300,000	Steve van Vuuren (6)	n/a
20 Jun	Royal Swazi Sun Classic	Swaziland	250,000	Bradford Vaughan (4)	n/a
2 Jul	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Zimbali	KwaZulu-Natal	300,000	Thomas Aiken (1)	n/a
23 Jul	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Sun City	North West	300,000	Thomas Aiken (2)	n/a
19 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella	Western Cape	300,000	Louis Oosthuizen (1)	n/a
10 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Mpumalanga	250,000	Divan van den Heever (1)	n/a
16 Oct	Limpopo Eskom Classic	Limpopo	500,000	Bradford Vaughan (5)	n/a
21 Oct	Vodacom Origins of Golf Final	Western Cape	300,000	Thomas Aiken (3)	n/a
30 Oct	Platinum Classic	North West	550,000	Titch Moore (5)	n/a
6 Nov	MTC Namibia PGA Championship	Namibia	500,000	Mark Murless (2)	n/a		New tournament
13 Nov	Seekers Travel Pro-Am	Gauteng	230,000	Ulrich van den Berg (3)	n/a
12 Dec	Dunhill Championship	Mpumalanga	£500,000	Charl Schwartzel (1)	18	EUR
23 Jan	South African Airways Open	KwaZulu-Natal	£500,000	Tim Clark (2)	32	EUR	Flagship event
30 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	North West	1,000,000	Simon Wakefield (1)	12		Pro-Am
6 Feb	Nashua Masters	Eastern Cape	1,000,000	Richard Sterne (1)	12
20 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Gauteng	1,750,000	Warren Abery (3)	12
27 Feb	Vodacom Tour Championship	Gauteng	2,000,000	Marc Cayeux (7)	12		Tour Championship

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.^[2][3]

Position	Player	Prize money (R)
1	Charl Schwartzel	1,635,850
2	Neil Cheetham	732,963
3	Warren Abery	704,837
4	Titch Moore	490,268
5	Marc Cayeux	430,676

Awards

Award	Winner	Ref.
Rookie of the Year (Bobby Locke Trophy)	Garry Houston	[4]

Notes

1. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Sunshine Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.
2. CHA − Challenge Tour; EUR − European Tour.

References

1. "2004/05 Tournament schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
2. "2004/05 Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
3. Winter, Grant (23 February 2005). "'Schwartzel is best young, player in world'". Independent Online. Retrieved 9 September 2023. He has won the 2004-05 Sunshine Tour order of merit by the proverbial mile.
4. South African Golfers Yearbook. Picasso Headline. 2002. p. 9. Retrieved 8 November 2023 – via Google Books. Rookie of the Year honours went to veteran Welshman Garry Houston, playing the tour for the first time. He finished 37th on the Order of Merit and just edged out 18-year-old Anton Haig (39th) by R3,300 for the award.

External links

• Official website