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.

Year	Dates	Tournament	Venue (RSA unless stated)	Prize fund (R)	Winner	Notes	Ref
2006	17–19 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Nchanga Golf Club, Zambia	750,000	Steve Basson (2)	Returns to tour after one-year hiatus	[1]
2006	19–21 Apr	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour (Arabella)	Arabella Country Club	400,000	Jean Hugo (3)		[2]
2006	27–29 Apr	South African Airways Pro-Am Invitational, Cape Town	Paarl Golf Glub	350,000	Jean Hugo (4)	New tournament	[3]
2006	3-6 May	Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	550,000	Thomas Aiken (6)		[4]
2006	11–13 May	Sun Coast Classic	Durban Country Club	350,000	Alex Haindl (1)	New tournament	[5]
2006	18–20 May	South African Airways Pro-Am Invitational, Johannesburg	Kempton Park Golf Club	400,000	Tongoona Charamba (1)	New tournament	[6]
2006	24–26 May	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour (Pretoria)	Pretoria Country Club	400,000	Vaughn Groenewald (1)		[7]
2006	28–30 Jun	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour (Kwazulu Natal)	Selborne Golf Club	400,000	Rossouw Loubser		[8]
2006	16–18 Aug	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour (Bloemfontein)	Bloemfontein Golf Club	400,000	Rossouw Loubser		[9]
2006	23–25 Aug	Telkom PGA Pro-Am	Centurion Country Club	350,000	Doug McGuigan (2)		[10]
2006	31 Aug – 2 Sep	Eskom Power Cup	Wanderers Golf Club	350,000	Trevor Fisher Jnr (2)	New tournament	[11]
2006	13–15 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour (Pezula)	Pezula Championship Course	400,000	Kevin Stone (4)		[12]
2006	28–30 Sep	Seekers Travel Pro-Am	Dainfern Country Club	350,000	Desvonde Botes (13)		[13]
2006	4–6 Oct	Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour Final	Montagu Golf Course, Fancourt	400,000	Darren Fichardt (5)		[14]
2006	13–15 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Witbank Golf Club	400,000	Darren Fichardt (6)		[15]
2006	19–21 Oct	MTC Namibia PGA Championship	Windhoek Country Club, Namibia	650,000	Anton Haig (2)		[16]
2006	26–28 Oct	Platinum Classic	Mooinooi Golf Club	600,000	Vaughn Groenewald (2)		[17]
2006	16–19 Nov	Limpopo Classic	Polokwane Golf Club	1,000,000	Bradford Vaughan (8)	Last year of this tournament	[18]
2006	21–23 Nov	Coca-Cola Charity Championship	Arabella Country Club	500,000	Alan Michell (1)	New tournament	[19]
2006	30 Nov – 3 Dec	Nedbank Golf Challenge	Gary Player Country Club	$4,385,000	Jim Furyk	First year as sanctioned tournament	[20]
2006	7–10 Dec	Alfred Dunhill Championship	Leopard Creek Country Club	€,1000,000	Álvaro Quirós	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[21]
2006	14–17 Dec	South African Airways Open	Humewood Golf Club	€1,000,000	Ernie Els (15)	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[22]
2007	11–14 Jan	Joburg Open	Royal JHB & Kens – East	€1,000,000	Ariel Cañete	Co-sanctioned with European Tour New tournament	[23]
2007	25–28 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Gary Player Country Club	1,600,000	Louis Oosthuizen (2)		[24]
2007	1–4 Feb	Nashua Masters	Wild Coast Sun Country Club	1,200,000	Jean Hugo (5)		[25]
2007	15–18 Feb	Vodacom Championship	Pretoria Country Club	2,200,000	Richard Sterne (2)		[26]
2007	22–25 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Country Club Johannesburg	2,250,000	Louis Oosthuizen (3)		[27]

Order of Merit

Rank	Player[28]	Country	Events	Prize money (R)
1	Charl Schwartzel	South Africa	7	1,585,117.41
2	Louis Oosthuizen	South Africa	8	1,314,739.00
3	Hennie Otto	South Africa	18	1,274,339.64
4	Andrew McLardy	South Africa	6	1,239,925.62
5	Darren Fichardt	South Africa	13	1,160,182.00

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