Sunshine Tour
Professional golf tour From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa. For much of its early history it was known either as the Southern Africa Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the FNB Tour[1] and the Vodacom Tour.[2] For the 2000–01 season the tour rebranded itself as the Sunshine Tour in an attempt to broaden its appeal. A large majority of the tour events are still staged in South Africa.[3]
Current season, competition or edition: 2024–25 Sunshine Tour | |
 | |
| Formerly | Sunshine Circuit South African Tour Southern Africa Tour Vodacom Tour FNB Tour |
|---|---|
| Sport | Golf |
| Founded | 1971 (rebranded as the Sunshine Tour in 2000) |
| Commissioner | Thomas Abt |
| Countries | Based in South Africa[a] |
| Most titles | Order of Merit titles: Mark McNulty (8) Tournament wins: Mark McNulty (33) |
| TV partner(s) | SuperSport |
| Related competitions | Big Easy Tour |
| Official website | http://www.sunshinetour.com |
The tour is one of the six leading men's tours which before 2009 made up the membership of the International Federation of PGA Tours, but it offers much less prize money than some of the leading tours, and leading Southern African golfers traditionally 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.
Most of the tour's leading official money events, including the South African Open, are co-sanctioned with the European Tour to attract stronger fields. The 2015 season included 27 official money events. The co-sanctioned events had purses ranging from €1,000,000 to US$6,500,000, while the other 21 events had purses designated in South African Rand and ranging from 650,000 rand to 4.5 million rand. 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.
In accordance with the apartheid policy of the governments of Southern Africa, the tour was only open to White players for its first 20 years.[4][5] The tour has been open to non-White players since 1991. Five black golfers have won events: South Africa's John Mashego at the 1991 Bushveld Classic; South Africa's Lindani Ndwandwe at the 2001 Western Cape Classic and 2009 Highveld Classic; Zimbabwe's Tongoona Charamba at the 2006 SAA Pro-Am Invitational[6] and 2008 MTC Namibia PGA Championship; Zambia's Madalitso Muthiya at the 2016 Vodacom Origins of Golf (Wild Coast); and South Africa's Toto Thimba Jr. at the 2019 KCB Karen Masters.
In 2016, the Sunshine Tour announced an affiliation with the MENA Golf Tour, allowing the top five MENA Tour players Sunshine Tour cards and those 6th-15th into the final stage of Q School. A number of events would also be co-sanctioned among the Sunshine Tour, MENA Tour, and developmental Big Easy Tour.[7]
In May 2022, it was announced that the Order of Merit would be reformatted for the 2022–23 season. It was sponsored by Luno, a cryptocurrency platform. The rankings changed to a points-based system, rather than being decided on money earned. Points earned are based on tournament prize money which are split into five tiers. The leader of the OoM will receive R 500,000; paid in Bitcoin.[8]
Since 2022, the top three players on the Order of Merit at the end of the season earn status to play on the European Tour for the following season.[9]
Schedule
Order of Merit winners
Multiple winners
| Rank | Player | Wins | Years won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mark McNulty | 8 | 1980–81, 1981–82, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1992–93, 1997–98, 2000–01 |
| 2 |  John Bland | 4 | 1977–78, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91 |
 Charl Schwartzel | 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2010 | ||
| T4 | George Coetzee | 2 | 2015, 2017–18 |
| Ernie Els | 1991–92, 1994–95 | ||
| Darren Fichardt | 1999–2000, 2003–04 | ||
 Allan Henning | 1974–75, 1975–76 | ||
| Tony Johnstone | 1988–89, 1993–94 | ||
| Gary Player | 1976–77, 1979–80 | ||
| Nick Price | 1982–83, 1996–97 |
Awards
| Season | Players' Player of the Year | Rookie of the Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2023–24 | No award | Robin Williams |
| 2022–23 | Casey Jarvis | |
| 2021–22 | Jayden Schaper (2) | |
| 2020–21 | Jayden Schaper | |
| 2019–20 | Garrick Higgo | |
| 2018–19 | Benjamin Follett-Smith | |
| 2017–18 | Oliver Bekker |  Neil O'Briain |
| 2016–17 | Unknown | Christiaan Bezuidenhout |
| 2015 | Dean Burmester | Rourke van der Spuy |
| 2014 | Unknown | Haydn Porteous |
| 2013 | Darren Fichardt | Dylan Frittelli |
| 2012 | Trevor Fisher Jnr | Daniel van Tonder |
| 2011 | Jean Hugo | Allan Versfeld |
| 2010 | Jaco van Zyl | Anthony Michael |
| 2009 | Unknown |  Graham DeLaet |
| 2008 | Louis Moolman | |
| 2007 |  Ross McGowan | |
| 2006–07 | Rossouw Loubser | |
| 2005–06 | Unknown | |
| 2004–05 |  Garry Houston | |
| 2003–04 |  Johan Edfors | |
| 2002–03 | Charl Schwartzel | |
| 2001–02 | Nicholas Lawrence | |
| 2000–01 | Trevor Immelman | |
| 1999–2000 | Jean Hugo | |
| 1998–99 | Unknown | |
| 1997–98 | Richard Fulford | |
| 1996–97 | Unknown | |
| 1995–96 |  Alan McLean | |
| 1994–95 | Unknown | |
| 1993–94 | Brenden Pappas |
Notes
References
External links
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