2006–07 Sunshine Tour

The 2006–07 Sunshine Tour was the seventh season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000. It marked the last year of a seasonal calendar. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region.

In 2005–06 there had been 21 tournaments. Of those, two tournaments were last held in 2005, but there were eight tournaments added for the 2006–07 schedule bringing the total up to 27. The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 24 of the 27 tournaments being held in the country. One event each was held in Swaziland, Zambia and Namibia. The new tournaments were the Stanbic Zambia Open, which returned after a hiatus in 2005, two South African Airways Pro-Am Invitational tournaments, the Sun Coast Classic, the Eskom Power Cup, the Coca-Cola Charity Championship, the first sanctioned year of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and the Joburg Open which was co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

The Order of Merit was won for the third straight time by Charl Schwartzel.

Schedule[]

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2006–07 Sunshine Tour. As usual, the tour consisted of two distinct parts, commonly referred to as the "Summer Swing" and "Winter Swing". Tournaments held during the Summer Swing generally had much higher prize funds, attracted stronger fields, and were the only tournaments on the tour to carry world ranking points, with three events being co-sanctioned with the European Tour.

With the switch to a calendar-based schedule in 2007, the last five events of the 2006–07 season were also considered part of the 2007 schedule, and counted towards the final standings of both.

Prize funds shown did not count directly towards the Order of Merit. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of official money Sunshine Tour events he had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner	OWGR points	Other tours[a]	Notes	Ref.
19 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Zambia	750,000	(2)	n/a			[1]
21 Apr	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella	Western Cape	400,000	Jean Hugo (3)	n/a			[2]
29 Apr		Western Cape	350,000	Jean Hugo (4)	n/a		New tournament	[3]
6 May	Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open	Swaziland	550,000	Thomas Aiken (6)	n/a			[4]
13 May	Suncoast Classic	KwaZulu-Natal	350,000	(1)	n/a		New tournament	[5]
20 May		Gauteng	400,000	Tongoona Charamba (1)	n/a		New tournament	[6]
26 May	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pretoria	Gauteng	400,000	Vaughn Groenewald (1)	n/a			[7]
30 Jun	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Selborne	KwaZulu-Natal	400,000	(1)	n/a			[8]
18 Aug	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Bloemfontein	Free State	400,000	(2)	n/a			[9]
25 Aug	Telkom PGA Pro-Am	Gauteng	350,000	Doug McGuigan (2)	n/a			[10]
2 Sep		North West	350,000	Trevor Fisher Jnr (2)	n/a		New tournament	[11]
15 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pezula	Western Cape	400,000	(4)	n/a			[12]
30 Sep		Gauteng	350,000	Desvonde Botes (12)	n/a			[13]
6 Oct	Vodacom Origins of Golf Final	Western Cape	400,000	Darren Fichardt (5)	n/a			[14]
15 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Mpumalanga	400,000	Darren Fichardt (6)	n/a			[15]
21 Oct	MTC Namibia PGA Championship	Namibia	650,000	Anton Haig (2)	n/a			[16]
28 Oct	Platinum Classic	North West	600,000	Vaughn Groenewald (2)	n/a			[17]
12 Nov	HSBC Champions	China	US$5,000,000	Yang Yong-eun (n/a)	52	ANZ, ASA, EUR
19 Nov		Limpopo	1,000,000	Bradford Vaughan (8)	12			[18]
23 Nov	Coca-Cola Charity Championship	Western Cape	500,000	(1)	n/a		New tournament	[19]
3 Dec	Nedbank Golf Challenge	North West	US$4,385,000	Jim Furyk (n/a)	38		New to Sunshine Tour	[20]
10 Dec	Alfred Dunhill Championship	Mpumalanga	€1,000,000	Álvaro Quirós (n/a)	18	EUR		[21]
17 Dec	South African Airways Open	Eastern Cape	€1,000,000	Ernie Els (17)	32	EUR	Flagship event	[22]
14 Jan	Joburg Open	Gauteng	€1,000,000	Ariel Cañete (n/a)	20	EUR	New tournament	[23]
28 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	North West	1,600,000	Louis Oosthuizen (2)	14			[24]
4 Feb	Nashua Masters	Eastern Cape	1,200,000	Jean Hugo (5)	14			[25]
18 Feb	Vodacom Championship	Gauteng	2,200,000	Richard Sterne (2)	14			[26]
25 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Gauteng	2,250,000	Louis Oosthuizen (3)	14			[27]

Order of Merit[]

Rank	Player[28]	Events	Prize money (R)
1	Charl Schwartzel	7	1,585,117
2	Louis Oosthuizen	8	1,314,739
3	Hennie Otto	18	1,274,340
4	Andrew McLardy	6	1,239,926
5	Darren Fichardt	13	1,160,182

Ernie Els was the highest money winner (with R1,734,659.33) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in three events. Álvaro Quirós was second in the money list (with R1,497,033.00) thanks to his victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship, but as a non-tour member and having not entered sufficient events, he was also ineligible for the Order of Merit.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website