The Sunshine Tour has announced a schedule of international golf that includes six co-sanctioned tournaments and prime positioning within the newly-announced ‘Global Swing’ of the DP World Tour.
The schedule will offer South Africa’s golfers even more opportunities and incentives, with the Sunshine Tour also announcing an increase in prize money for the 2023/2024 season.
The six Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournaments will begin with the Joburg Open at Houghton Golf Club from 23-26 November, followed by the Investec South African Open at Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate from 30 November to 3 December, the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek from 7-10 December, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at the new La Réserve Golf Links from 14-17 December, the SDC Championship (venue to be confirmed) from 29 February to 3 March 2024, and the Jonsson Workwear Open (venue to be confirmed) from 7-10 March 2024.
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In addition to the current four European Challenge Tour events on the Sunshine Tour schedule, these six co-sanctioned tournaments will form part of the DP World Tour’s new Global Swing structure of its schedule. The Global Swing will consist of an Opening Swing, International Swing, Asian Swing, European Swing and Closing Swing.
The first four co-sanctioned tournaments (the Joburg Open, Investec South African Open, Alfred Dunhill Championship and AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open) will fall under the Opening Swing. The SDC Championship and the Jonsson Workwear Open will be grouped together with the International Swing.
“This is going to be a summer unrivalled international golf on Sunshine Tour fairways, with world-class fields competing on some of our best golf courses and for major new incentives,” said Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour. “Our alliance with the DP World Tour means we can keep strengthening the global pathway that the Sunshine Tour offers, and these new incentives will further boost our fields and offer immense value to our co-sanctioned events. With our tournaments forming part of both the Opening Swing and International Swing, it’s a double opportunity for our members to benefit from these opportunities.”
The Sunshine Tour also confirmed a significant increase in prize money across the rest of its schedule, with all of its other tournaments set to offer minimum total purses of R2 million.
The second half of the 2023-24 season will feature the longstanding Vodacom Origins of Golf Series and the SunBet Challenge series, which anchors the winter schedule on the Tour.
There are further incentives for the leading professionals at the end of this season.
The Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit points ranking will now be known as the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy, and the top three professionals at the end of the season will receive an added bonus, with R500 000 going to the first-place finisher, followed by R200 000 for second and R100 000 for third place. This will be on top of their season’s earnings.
And in a further drive to develop the next generation of Sunshine Tour stars, the leading rookie professional at the end of this 2023-24 season will receive a bonus of R200 000 as part of the new Fortress Rookie of the Year award.