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Sunshine Tour

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
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 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 and the Vodacom Tour. 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.

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. 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 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.

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.

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.

Schedule

Order of Merit winners

Season	Winner	Points
2023–24	Ryan van Velzen	3,525
2022–23	Ockie Strydom	3,336
Season	Winner	Prize money (R)
2021–22	Shaun Norris	4,890,994
2020–21	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	7,789,088
2019–20	J. C. Ritchie	2,162,387
2018–19	Zander Lombard	2,119,985
2017–18	George Coetzee (2)	2,937,226
2016–17	Brandon Stone	7,384,889
2015	George Coetzee	5,470,684
2014	Thomas Aiken	4,057,642
2013	Dawie van der Walt	5,094,333
2012	Branden Grace	2,760,319
2011	Garth Mulroy	3,464,463
2010	Charl Schwartzel (4)	5,097,914
2009	Anders Hansen	4,286,038
2008	Richard Sterne	5,599,265
2007	James Kingston	1,980,689
2006–07	Charl Schwartzel (3)	1,585,117
2005–06	Charl Schwartzel (2)	1,207,460
2004–05	Charl Schwartzel	1,635,850
2003–04	Darren Fichardt (2)	726,545
2002–03	Trevor Immelman	2,044,280
2001–02	Tim Clark	1,669,901
2000–01	Mark McNulty (8)	1,603,481
1999–2000	Darren Fichardt	558,735
1998–99	David Frost	1,189,762
1997–98	Mark McNulty (7)	589,053
1996–97	Nick Price (2)	1,223,027
1995–96	Wayne Westner	709,389
1994–95	Ernie Els (2)	460,488
1993–94	Tony Johnstone (2)	297,359
1992–93	Mark McNulty (6)	250,079
1991–92	Ernie Els	324,017
1990–91	John Bland (4)	333,637
1989–90	John Bland (3)	180,893
1988–89	Tony Johnstone	254,950
1987–88	John Bland (2)	143,301
1986–87	Mark McNulty (5)	134,690
1985–86	Mark McNulty (4)	113,527
1984–85	Mark McNulty (3)	57,750
1983–84	Gavan Levenson	43,940
1982–83	Nick Price	31,986
1981–82	Mark McNulty (2)	67,054
1980–81	Mark McNulty	50,192
1979–80	Gary Player (2)	49,680
1978–79	Hugh Baiocchi	19,804
1977–78	John Bland	25,171
1976–77	Gary Player	19,363
1975–76	Allan Henning (2)	18,275
Season	Winner	Points
1974–75	Allan Henning	1,833
1973–74	Bobby Cole	1,664
1972–73	Dale Hayes	1,252
1971–72	Tienie Britz	1,604

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

1. Schedules have also included events in Botswana, eSwatini, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

References

1. Berkovitz, Anton; Samson, Andrew (1993). South Africa and international sports factfinder. D. Nelson. p. 96. ISBN 1868061019. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
2. "Vodacom boosts PGA tour, annoys competitor". Mail & Guardian. Johannesburg, South Africa. 13 June 1997. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
3. "A Brief History of the Sunshine Tour". Golf Village. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
4. Butler, Lynn. "Sunshine Tour transforming SA golf in honour of Papwa Sewgolum". Sport.
5. "Transformation in Golf | Papwa Sewgolum Class".
6. "Charamba rewrites history at SAA Pro-Am Invitational". Sunshine Tour. 22 May 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2009.
7. "OWGR Board Announcement". Official World Golf Ranking. 15 April 2016. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2023. Following a recent announcement that the top 5 players on the final 2016 MENA Golf Tour Order of Merit will earn full playing privileges on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, as well as the MENA Golf Tour receiving 10 exemptions into the Sunshine Tour Final Stage of Qualifying School and 3 Tri Sanctioned Tournaments with the MENA Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour and the Big Easy Tour…
8. "Sunshine Tour announces new Luno Order of Merit". Compleat Golfer. 5 May 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
9. "European Tour and Sunshine Tour launch landmark partnership". European Tour. 9 July 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2023.

External links

• Official website

• Sunshine Tour
• Professional golf tours
• Golf in South Africa