2007 Sunshine Tour

The 2007 Sunshine Tour was the eighth season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000, and the marked the beginning of a new era as the tour switched to a calendar based season, having previously been seasonal. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region.

The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 24 of the 28 tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, with one each in Zambia and Namibia. There were five new tournaments, the Joburg Open, one of three events co-sanctioned by the PGA European Tour, the Nashua Golf Challenge, the Lombard Insurance Classic, the returning Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and the Nedbank Affinity Cup, introduced to the schedule as an appetizer to the high profile Nedbank Golf Challenge.

The Order of Merit was won for the first time by James Kingston, breaking Charl Schwartzel's three year stranglehold on the title.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2007 Sunshine Tour.[1] 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.

The Winter Swing ran from March to November, starting with the Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and closing with the Coca-Cola Charity Championship. Since the tour switched to a calendar based season, this part of the tour effectively splits the Summer Swing into two, with five events being held at the start of the year, and the remainder in December. Due to these scheduling changes, the first five events of the 2007 season had already been part of the 2006–07 tour schedule, but continued to count 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.

Dates Tournament Venue
(RSA unless stated)		 Prize fund Winner OWGR
points		 Notes
11–14 Jan Joburg Open Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC €1,000,000 Ariel Cañete (n/a) 20 Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
New event
25–28 Jan Dimension Data Pro-Am Gary Player CC and Lost City GC, Sun City R1,600,000 Louis Oosthuizen (2) 14
1–4 Feb Nashua Masters Wild Coast Sun CC R1,200,000 Jean Hugo (5) 14
15–18 Feb Vodacom Championship Pretoria CC R2,200,000 Richard Sterne (2) 14
22–25 Feb Telkom PGA Championship The Country Club, Johannesburg R2,250,000 Louis Oosthuizen (3) 14
8–11 Mar Mount Edgecombe Trophy Mount Edgecombe GC R500,000 Steve van Vuuren (7) New event, last held in 1994
30 Mar – 1 Apr Finance Bank Zambia Open Ndola GC, Lusaka, Zambia R750,000 Steve Basson (3)
13–15 Apr Eskom Power Cup Pecanwood Golf Estate R400,000 Chris Swanepoel (1)
18–20 Apr Vodacom Origins of Golf Arabella Arabella GC R400,000 Andrew Curlewis (1)
2–5 May Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open Royal Swazi GC, Swaziland R600,000 Des Terblanche (12)
9–11 May Vodacom Origins of Golf Pretoria Pretoria CC R400,000 Hennie Otto (7)
17–19 May Suncoast Classic Durban CC R400,000 Adilson da Silva (3)
8–10 Jun Lombard Insurance Classic Royal Swazi GC, Swaziland R350,000 Peter Karmis (1) New event
13–15 Jun Vodacom Origins of Golf Selborne Selborne Hotel Spa and Golf Estate R400,000 George Coetzee (1)
28–30 Jun Nashua Golf Challenge Gary Player CC and Lost City GC, Sun City R400,000 Warren Abery (6) New event
1–3 Aug Vodacom Origins of Golf Bloemfontein Bloemfontein GC R400,000 Ulrich van den Berg (5)
22–24 Aug Vodacom Origins of Golf Fancourt Fancourt GC R400,000 Adilson da Silva (4)
29–31 Aug Telkom PGA Pro-Am Centurion CC R350,000 Michiel Bothma (2)
6–8 Sep Seekers Travel Pro-Am Dainfern CC R400,000 James Kamte (1)
26–28 Sep Vodacom Origins of Golf Final St Francis Links R400,000 Titch Moore (6)
5–7 Oct Bearing Man Highveld Classic Witbank GC R400,000 Marc Cayeux (8)
18–20 Oct MTC Namibia PGA Championship Windhoek Country Club, Namibia R700,000 Keith Horne (2)
25–27 Oct Platinum Classic Mooinooi GC R705,000 Louis Oosthuizen (4)
20–22 Nov Coca-Cola Charity Championship Arabella GC R500,000 Titch Moore (7)
26–28 Nov Nedbank Affinity Cup Lost City GC, Sun City R500,000 Mark Murless (3) New event
29 Nov – 2 Dec Nedbank Golf Challenge Gary Player CC, Sun City $4,385,000 Trevor Immelman (5) 34
6–9 Dec Alfred Dunhill Championship Leopard Creek CC, Malelane €1,000,000 John Bickerton (n/a) 22 Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
18–21 Dec South African Airways Open Pearl Valley Golf Estates €1,000,000 James Kingston (9) 32 Flagship event
Co-sanctioned by the European Tour

Order of Merit
RankPlayer[2]CountryEventsPrize Money (R)
1James Kingston South Africa101,980,688.65
2Louis Oosthuizen South Africa81,596,845.50
3Andrew McLardy South Africa51,387,474.85
4Hennie Otto South Africa201,331,375.79
5Richard Sterne South Africa5966,546.55

Ernie Els was the fifth highest money winner (with R1,120,503.20) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in three events. John Bickerton and Ariel Cañete were second and fourth respectively in the money list thanks to their victories in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Joburg Open, but as non tour members, and having not entered sufficient events, they were also ineligible for the Order of Merit.

References
  1. "2007 Sunshine Tour schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  2. "2007 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
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