2008 Sunshine Tour

The 2008 Sunshine Tour was the ninth season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was relaunched in 2000, and the second since the tour switched a calendar based season in 2007. 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 26 of the 30 tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, with one each in Zambia and Namibia. There were two new tournaments, The Africa Open, which the tour hopes will become "Africa's Major" in the future, and the BMG Classic, founded by the Bearing Man Group, who wished to continue their involvement with the tour following the end of their long run as title sponsors of the Highveld Classic.

The order of merit was dominated by Richard Sterne, who won all three European Tour co-sanctioned tournaments, by far the richest on the tour.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2008 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. Since the tour switched to a calendar based season, this part of the tour has been split in two, with six events being held at the start of the year, and the remainder in December.

The Winter Swing ran from March to November, starting with the Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and closing with the Coca-Cola Charity Championship, hosted by Gary Player.

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
10–13 Jan Joburg Open Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC €1,000,000 Richard Sterne (3) 20 Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
24–27 Jan Dimension Data Pro-Am Gary Player CC and Lost City GC, Sun City €1,100,000 James Kamte (2) 14
31 Jan – 3 Feb Nashua Masters Wild Coast Sun CC R1,200,000 Marc Cayeux (9) 14
7–10 Feb The Africa Open Fish River Sun CC R1,200,000 Shaun Norris (1) 14 New event
14–17 Feb Vodacom Championship Pretoria CC R2,400,000 James Kingston (10) 14
21–24 Feb Telkom PGA Championship The Country Club, Johannesburg R2,500,000 Louis Oosthuizen (5) 14
28 Feb – 2 Mar Mount Edgecombe Trophy Mount Edgecombe GC R500,000 Mark Murless (4) n/a
28–30 Mar Zambia Open Lusaka, Zambia R750,000 Tyrone Ferreira (1) n/a
3–5 Apr Vodacom Origins of Golf Free State Bloemfontein GC R440,000 Dion Fourie (2) n/a
23–25 Apr Vodacom Origins of Golf Gauteng Pretoria CC R440,000 Tyrone van Aswegen (1) n/a
7–10 May Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open Royal Swazi GC, Swaziland R700,000 Jean Hugo (6) n/a
15–17 May Nashua Golf Challenge Gary Player CC and Lost City GC, Sun City R500,000 Keith Horne (3) n/a
28–30 May Vodacom Origins of Golf KwaZulu Natal Selborne Hotel Spa and Golf Estate R440,000 Jean Hugo (7) n/a
6–8 Jun Lombard Insurance Classic Royal Swazi GC, Swaziland R400,000 Merrick Bremner (1) n/a
21–23 Aug SAA Pro-Am Invitational Paarl GC R500,000 George Coetzee (2) n/a
27–29 Aug Vodacom Origins of Golf Western Cape Arabella GC R440,000 Garth Mulroy (1) n/a
3–5 Sep Telkom PGA Pro-Am Centurion CC R400,000 Merrick Bremner (2) n/a
11–13 Sep Suncoast Classic Durban CC R500,000 Jake Roos (1) n/a
17–19 Sep Vodacom Origins of Golf Eastern Cape Humewood GC, Port Elizabeth R440,000 George Coetzee (3) n/a
2–4 Oct Seekers Travel Pro-Am Dainfern CC R440,000 Trevor Fisher Jnr (3) n/a
10–12 Oct BMG Classic Ebotse GC, Johannesburg R500,000 Doug McGuigan (3) n/a New event
17–19 Oct Metmar Highveld Classic Witbank GC R600,000 James Kamte (3) n/a
22–24 Oct Vodacom Origins of Golf Final St Francis Links R440,000 Jaco van Zyl (2) n/a
30 Oct – 1 Nov Platinum Classic Mooinooi GC R705,000 Thomas Aiken (7) n/a
6–9 Nov MTC Namibia PGA Championship Windhoek Country Club, Namibia R1,000,000 Tongoona Charamba (2) n/a
25–27 Nov Coca-Cola Charity Championship The Outeniqua, Fancourt R550,000 Garth Mulroy (2) n/a
1–3 Dec Nedbank Affinity Cup Lost City GC, Sun City R550,000 Tyrone van Aswegen (2) n/a
4–7 Dec Nedbank Golf Challenge Gary Player CC, Sun City $4,385,000 Henrik Stenson (N/A) 34
11–14 Dec Alfred Dunhill Championship Leopard Creek CC, Malelane €1,000,000 Richard Sterne (4) 24 Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
18–21 Dec South African Open Championship Pearl Valley Golf Estates €1,000,000 Richard Sterne (5) 40 Co-sanctioned by the European Tour

Order of Merit
RankPlayer[2]CountryEventsPrize Money (R)
1Richard Sterne South Africa55,999,264.60
2Garth Mulroy South Africa61,442,350.70
3Thomas Aiken South Africa8967,378.26
4Mark Murless South Africa28885,055.74
5James Kingston South Africa7775,903.20

England's Robert Rock was the third highest money winner (with R1,280,632.80) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in two events.

References
  1. "2008 Sunshine Tour schedule". Sunshine Tour. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  2. "2008 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 21 December 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
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