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New event tees off Sunshine Tour
6 March 2007
The 2007 Sunshine Tour season gets underway this week with a new event, new venue, and new sponsor combining to signal the start of a bumper Winter Swing.
A minimum of 18 events will take prize money to an all-time high of nearly R8-million over the colder months, running from March to October.
Increased prize money
The Mount Edgecombe Trophy, starting on 8 March and sponsored by Investec Private Bank, paves the way for an exciting winter that features four new events on the calendar, while 11 regular tournaments offer increased prize money.
In addition to the new R500 000 season-opener at Mount Edgecombe, the Tour will also stop over in Swaziland for the inaugural Lombard Insurance Swazi Classic and visit Sun City for the R500 000
Nashua Challenge, both scheduled in June.
A second visit to Sun City in November (tournament name and prize money to be confirmed) completes the quartet of new tournaments on the 2007 Winter Swing.
Venturing north
Following the Mount Edgecombe Trophy from 8 to 11 March, the Sunshine Tour ventures north of the South African border for the R750 000 Zambia Open, sponsored by Final Bank Zambia, at the Ndola Golf Club.
Then it's back to Gauteng for the R400 000 Eskom Power Cup, which debuted at the Wanderers last season. From there the action moves to the Jack Nicklaus-designed Pecanwood Golf and Country Club on the Hartebeespoort Dam.
April also kicks off the first leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour, a series of six events honouring the legends of golf.
Now in its fourth season on the Winter Swing, Vodacom has again increased the purse of each event by R40 000, taking the total prize money on offer to a record
R2.4-million.
Winter Swing
The Arabella Golf Club at the Western Cape Hotel and Spa near Kleinmond and Hermanus, where Louis Oosthuizen celebrated his maiden professional victory in the series in 2004, will host the first leg this year.
The Zulu Kingdom is the first scheduled stop in May, where the second Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open will be played for an elevated purse of R600 000, which marks a R100 000 increase from last year's inaugural event.
From Swaziland, the Tour travels to Blue Bull country for the Vodacom Origins Gauteng, where Vaughn Groenewald will defend the first of his two 2007 titles at Pretoria Country Club.
KwaZulu-Natal
Then it's back to KwaZulu-Natal for the second edition of the Suncoast Classic, also boasting increased prize money of R400 000.
The inaugural Lombard Insurance Swazi Sun Classic at the start of June is followed by the Kwazulu Natal leg of the Vodacom
Origins Series at Selborne Country Club. After that the Tour travels to Sun City for the R500 000 Nashua Challenge.
August hails the fourth and fifth legs of the Vodacom Origins Tour; first, a visit to the Bloemfontein Golf Club in Cheetah country, and then The Montagu at Fancourt, where Darren Fichardt won the first of his back-to-back titles last season.
The third Telkom PGA Pro-Am will sign off on August at the Centurion Country Club.
Pro-Am
Seekers Travel returns with their sixth Pro-Am, scheduled for the first week in September at Dainfern, followed by the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour Final from 26 to 28 September at a venue to be confirmed.
In the first week of October, the Sunshine Tour celebrates the 28th anniversary of the Bearing Man Highveld Classic, the Tour's longest running pro-am, at the Witbank Golf Club from fifth to the seventh.
From Witbank the Tour heads to Windhoek for the fourth MTC Namibia PGA
Championship at the Windhoek Country Club from 18 to 20 October.
Since its inception in 2004, MTC has annually increased the purse, and with record prize money of R700 000, the MTC Namibia PGA Championship is the second richest event on the Winter Swing for a third year running.
The final counting event for the season-finale Coca-Cola Championship in November is the Platinum Classic at Mooinooi, in its usual slot in the last week of October.
2007 Sunshine Tour Schedule
(# denotes co-sanctioned event with European Tour; * denotes Non-Order of
Merit event. Subject to change)
March
26 Feb - 2: *Sunshine Tour Qualifying School CMR G.C. (Johannesburg)
3: *Gloria Jean's Pro-Am, Pinnacle Point Beach and Golf Resort, (Mosselbay)
3: *Gloria Jean's Par 3 Challenge Pinnacle Point Beach and Golf Resort,
(Mosselbay)
8 - 11: Mount Edgecombe Trophy, Mount Edgecombe G.C (Durban)
30 - 1 Apr: Finance Bank Zambia Open, Ndola
Golf Club, (Ndola)
April
13 - 15: Eskom Power Cup, Pecanwood Golf & Country Club
18 - 20: Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour at Arabella, Arabella G.C.
May
2 - 5: Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open, Royal Swazi Sun C.C
9 - 11: Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour, Pretoria C.C.
17 - 19: Suncoast Classic, Durban C.C.
June
8 - 10: Lombard Insurance Swazi Sun Classic, Royal Swazi Sun C.C.
13 - 15: Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour, Selborne C.C.
18 - 20:* Royal Swazi Sun Touring Pro-Am, Royal Swazi Sun C.C
TBA, Nashua Challenge, Sun City, (course TBA)
August
1 - 3: Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour, Bloemfontein G.C.
13 - 15:* Sun City Touring Pro-Am, Sun City, (course TBA)
22 - 24: Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour, The Montagu, Fancourt
29 - 31: Telkom PGA Pro-Am, Centurion C.C.
September
6 - 8: Seekers Travel Pro-Am, Dainfern C.C.
26 - 28:
Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour Final, TBA
October
5 - 7: Bearing Man Highveld Classic, Witbank G.C.
18 - 20: MTC Nambia PGA Championship, Windhoek C.C.
25 - 27: Platinum Classic, Mooinooi G.C.
November
20 - 22: Coca Cola Charity Championship hosted by Gary Player, Arabella G.C.
26 - 28: TBA, Sun City, (course TBA)
December
18 - 19:*Ernie Els Invitational, Fancourt
Source: Sunshine Tour
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Golf courses in South Africa
Our climate is ideal for spending time out on the fairways, and when it comes to courses, golfers here are blessed for choice. 
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