It isn’t just at night when the stars come out in South Africa.
During the year there are numerous tournaments on the Sunshine Tour that attract many of the game’s up and coming professional golfers. Five tournaments are co-sanctioned by the European Tour, bringing top names not only from South Africa and Europe but also from the USA, South America, Asia and Australia.
The Nedbank Golf Challenge, held each December on the Gary Player Country Club course in Sun City, offers the biggest purse for a golf tournament in the country and consequently draws the biggest stars to compete. The 2015 event, which had a purse of $6.5 million, was won by Australia’s Marc Leishman and the top 20 was like a Who’s Who of golf with many famous players including several Major winners competing.
Among the stars vying for contention were runner-up Henrik Stenson (Sweden), future Masters winner Danny Willett, England compatriots Chris Wood, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan, Ross Fisher and Lee Westwood, Ryder Cup heroes Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Martin Kaymer (Germany) and Victor Dubuisson (France), South Africa’s own Major winners Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, US PGA winner Keegan Bradley, Scotland’s Russell Knox and Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
Immediately prior to that on the Sunshine Tour and European Tour calendars each year is the Alfred Dunhill Championship, played at Leopard Creek Country Club and won in November 2015 by Charl Schwartzel. It also features many familiar names.
Home favourite and four-time Major winner Ernie Els is the player-host for the annual BMW South African Open Championship, the second-oldest national open championship in golf after the Open Championship. It takes place at Glendower Golf Club in Johannesburg in January and was won in 2016 by fellow South African Brandon Stone, with compatriots Retief Goosen and Branden Grace joint fourth. Other notable participants included England’s Robert Rock, Andy Sullivan and David Howell, Italy’s Edoardo Molinari, Nicholas Colsaerts of Belgium and South Africa’s 2008 Masters champion, Trevor Immelman.
Els is hoping to persuade Northern Ireland superstar Rory McIlroy to participate in the 2017 SA Open.
Another big event in the two tours’ calendars is the Joburg Open, which also takes place in January and is held at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club. Ernie Els, former Open Champion Paul Lawrie and a number of other household names were among participants in the 2016 tournament.
The Tshwane Open, staged in February at the Pretoria Country Club, completes the quintet of co-sanctioned tour events. Charl Schwartzel won the 2016 tournament and was joined in the field by many well-known golfers from South Africa and Europe.
Other Sunshine Tour events take place at venues including Fancourt, Fish River Sun, Sun City’s Lost City Golf Course, San Lameer, Wild Coast Sun, Zebula Golf Eastate and the Royal Cape Golf Club.
All of them welcome visitors, so you can not only follow your golfing heroes or rising stars as they battle for honours but also play in their spike marks.
