A Brief History of the Sunshine Tour
The Sunshine Tour was founded in 1971. For much of its existence it was actually known as the South African Tour or the FNB Tour. In the 2000-01 season the tour was rebranded to The Sunshine Tour, this to increase the tour’s overall appeal. The Tour has been open to all races since 1991 long before other events were open to all South Africans. Since then, five black golfers have won events.
The tour is one of the biggest leading men’s tours which together with other tours make up the International Federation of PGA Tours. These are the Asian Tour, The European PGA Tour, The Japan Golf Tour and The PGA Tour of Australia. This same federation founded the World Golf Championships back in 1999. They also sanctioned the Official World Golf Rankings.
This tour’s leading official money events like the South African Open are co-sanctioned with the European Tour in an attempt to attract stronger fields. These are The Alfred Dunhill Championship and the South African Open. The Alfred Dunhill Championship is one of the oldest championships in golfing history. On top of that the tour also sanctions The AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open with the Asian Tour and the European Tour. In 2015 there were 27 official money events. The Co-sanction events had prizes ranging from One million euros to 6.5 Million Dollar. The other events were based in South African Rand with prizes ranging from R650, 000 to R4.5 million. This tour has at least one event per month with the expectation of July. The main events take place in the South African summer months of November, December, January and February.
In 2016 the Tour came with the news of affiliation with the MENA Golf Tour allowing the top five players of this MENA Tour, Sunshine Tour cards. Of these the 6th-15th is allowed into the final stage of Q School. From then the Sunshine Tour, MENA Tour and developmental Big Easy Tour also co-sanctioned some events.
The sunshine tour is made up of two parts, the common referred to “Summer Swing” and the “Winter Swing”. The summer tours are where the big money events are held and the stronger fields come to play. The Winter Swing starts in March and runs through to November.
The Sunshine Tour is currently Africa’s premier membership organisation for the touring professional golfers.
Ever dream of playing in a tour as prestigious as the Sunshine Tour? All these pros that feature on this tour started somewhere, and so can you. The Golf Villages is a one-stop destination for golf tips and advice. With amazing facilities and driving ranges where you can go to perfect your touring swing.
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