Sunshine Tour: now even hotter
21 October 2004
The organisers are lining up "some of the world's best golfers under African skies" for this year's Dunhill Championship, one of two Southern Africa PGA Tour events co-sanctioned by the European Tour - and one of the highlights of a scorching 2004/2005 Sunshine Tour, the first eight dates of which have just been announced.
The summer recently got underway at The Nelson Mandela Invitational, presented by Coca-Cola and hosted by Gary Player, on 27 and 28 November at the Arabella Country Estate.
Ernie Els played the event for the first time and made it count, teaming with Vincent Tshabalala to win on 12-under par. He loved it and expressed the hope that his busy worldwide schedule allows him to return in 2005.
Charity fundraiser
The charity tournament certainly succeeded from a financial standpoint, topping the goal of R6-million that was set out. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the
Gary Player Foundation.
The Dunhill Championship - the first of two events co-sanctioned by the European Tour - will be played at the spectacular Leopard Creek golf course in Mpumalanga from December 9-12.
"It's an exciting development for the Tour to have the Dunhill Championship in a time frame open to all golfers around the world", said Sunshine Tour commissioner, Johan Immelman.
'World's best under African skies'
"In collaboration with Dunhill and Leopard Creek, we have widened the small window of opportunity available to us to host some of the world's best golfers under African skies and provide our members with the best competition available."
The Dunhill Championship follows the Nedbank Golf Challenge, celebrating its 23rd year at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City from 2 to 5 December 2004.
The Sunshine Tour resumes in 2005 when the second oldest National Open in the golf world, the South African Airways Open,
takes to the fairways of Durban Country Club for a record 16th time from January 20-23.
Two-year exemption
The winners of the Dunhill Championship and the SAA Open win a two-year exemption on the European Tour.
The International Final Qualifier for the 2005 Open Championship at St Andrews will precede the SAA Open. This non-order of merit event represents the African leg of final qualifiers held across the five continents and takes place at Atlantic Beach Golf Estate in Cape Town on January 13 and 14.
"This year four of our members gained direct access into the Open Championship at Royal Troon by way of this unique opportunity, presented by the Royal & Ancient", commented Immelman.
Sun City and the Lost City
The Dimension Data Pro-Am will celebrate a decade on the Sunshine Tour calendar with the 10th visit to the Gary Player Country Club and Lost City Courses at Sun City from 27-30 January 2005,
followed by the Nashua Masters at the Wild Coast Country Club from 3-6 February.
The Telkom PGA Championship returns to Woodhill Country Club from 17-20 February, allowing a break in the schedule for the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf at Fancourt from 10-13 February.
All the Sunshine Tour tournaments will receive live television coverage on M-Net and Supersport. The co-sanctioned events will receive live coverage over all four the tournament days, while the local tournaments will receive two days of live coverage.
The full 2004/2005 Southern Africa PGA Tour summer schedule will be announced at a later date.
Dates and tournaments
26-28 Nov: Nelson Mandela Invitational, Arabella CE
2-5 Dec: Nedbank Golf Challenge, Gary Player CC
9-12 Dec: Dunhill Championship, Leopard Creek GC
13-14 Jan: Open International Final Qualifier, Atlantic Beach CC
20-23 Jan: SAA Open Championship, Durban CC
27-30 Jan:
Dimension Data Pro-Am, Gary Player CC/Lost City GC
3-6 Feb: Nashua Masters, Wild Coast CC
17-20 Feb: Telkom PGA Championship, Woodhill CC
TBC: The Tour Championship (venue to be confirmed)
Source: Sunshine Tour
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