2005–06 Sunshine Tour

The 2005–06 Sunshine Tour was the 35th season of the Sunshine Tour (formerly the Southern Africa Tour), the main professional golf tour in South Africa since it was formed in 1971.

2005–06 Sunshine Tour season

Duration	16 March 2005 (2005-03-16) – 26 February 2006 (2006-02-26)
Number of official events	21
Most wins	Thomas Aiken (2) Desvonde Botes (2) Bradford Vaughan (2)
Order of Merit	Charl Schwartzel
← 2004–05 2006–07 →

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2005–06 season.^[1]

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner[a]	OWGR points	Other tours[b]	Notes
19 Mar	FNB Botswana Open	Botswana	250,000	Nico van Rensburg (3)	n/a
9 Apr	Parmalat Classic	Eastern Cape	300,000	Ulrich van den Berg (4)	n/a
7 May	Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open	Swaziland	500,000	Hendrik Buhrmann (4)	n/a
13 May	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pretoria	Gauteng	330,000	Desvonde Botes (10)	n/a
27 May	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pezula	Western Cape	330,000	Desvonde Botes (11)	n/a
1 Jul	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Wild Coast Sun	Eastern Cape	330,000	Dean Lambert (1)	n/a
26 Aug	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Bloemfontein	Free State	330,000	Nic Henning (4)	n/a
2 Sep	Telkom PGA Pro-Am	Gauteng	300,000	Thomas Aiken (4)	n/a		New tournament
9 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Erinvale	Western Cape	330,000	Hennie Otto (6)	n/a
1 Oct	Seekers Travel Pro-Am	Gauteng	300,000	Anton Haig (1)	n/a
9 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Mpumalanga	400,000	Bradford Vaughan (6)	n/a
15 Oct	MTC Namibia PGA Championship	Namibia	500,000	Thomas Aiken (5)	n/a
21 Oct	Vodacom Origins of Golf Final	Western Cape	400,000	Steve Basson (1)	n/a
29 Oct	Platinum Classic	North West	500,000	Jaco van Zyl (1)	n/a
20 Nov	Limpopo Classic	Limpopo	1,000,000	Bradford Vaughan (7)	18
11 Dec	Dunhill Championship	Mpumalanga	€1,000,000	Ernie Els (13)	20	EUR
18 Dec	South African Airways Open	Western Cape	€1,000,000	Retief Goosen (5)	32	EUR	Flagship event
29 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	North West	1,000,000	Alan McLean (2)	12		Pro-Am
5 Feb	Nashua Masters	Eastern Cape	1,000,000	Warren Abery (4)	12
19 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Gauteng	2,000,000	Grégory Bourdy (1)	12
26 Feb	Vodacom Tour Championship	Gauteng	2,000,000	Charl Schwartzel (2)	12		Tour Championship

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner	OWGR points	Other tours[b]	Notes
13 Nov	HSBC Champions	China	US$5,000,000	David Howell	48	ANZ,[c] ASA,[d] EUR	New limited-field event

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	1,207,460
2	Grégory Bourdy	936,394
3	Louis Oosthuizen	842,092
4	Thomas Aiken	779,566
5	Darren Fichardt	763,324

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. ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia; ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.
3. PGA Tour of Australasia unofficial event
4. Asian Tour unofficial event

References

1. "2005/06 Tournament schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
2. "2005/06 Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
3. Winter, Grant (27 February 2006). "Bright year awaits Schwartzel". Independent Online. Retrieved 9 September 2023. On Sunday he not only picked up R317 000 for the win, but became the first player since John Bland in 1989/1990 and 1990/91 to top the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit two years running.

External links

• Official website