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.
| Duration | 10 January 2008 – 21 December 2008 |
|---|---|
| Number of official events | 31 |
| Most wins | 3: Richard Sterne |
| Order of Merit | Richard Sterne |
← 2007 2009 → | |
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.
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.
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 following table lists official events during the 2008 season.[1]
| Date | Tournament | Location | Purse (R) |
Winner[lower-alpha 1] | OWGR points |
Other tours[lower-alpha 2] |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jan | Joburg Open | Gauteng | €1,100,000 | Richard Sterne (3) |
20 | EUR | |
| 27 Jan | Dimension Data Pro-Am | North West | 1,800,000 | James Kamte (2) |
14 | Pro-Am | |
| 3 Feb | Nashua Masters | Eastern Cape | 1,200,000 |  Marc Cayeux (9) |
14 | ||
| 10 Feb | The Africa Open | Eastern Cape | 1,200,000 | Shaun Norris (1) |
14 | New tournament | |
| 17 Feb | Vodacom Championship | Gauteng | 2,400,000 | James Kingston (9) |
14 | ||
| 24 Feb | Telkom PGA Championship | Gauteng | 2,500,000 | Louis Oosthuizen (5) |
14 | ||
| 2 Mar | Mount Edgecombe Trophy | KwaZulu-Natal | 500,000 | Mark Murless (4) |
n/a | ||
| 30 Mar | Zambia Open | Zambia | 750,000 | Tyrone Ferreira (1) |
n/a | ||
| 4 Apr | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Bloemfontein | Free State | 440,000 | Dion Fourie (2) |
n/a | ||
| 25 Apr | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pretoria | Gauteng | 440,000 | Tyrone van Aswegen (1) |
n/a | ||
| 10 May | Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open | Swaziland | 700,000 | Jean Hugo (6) |
n/a | ||
| 17 May | Nashua Golf Challenge | North West | 500,000 | Keith Horne (3) |
n/a | ||
| 30 May | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Selborne | KwaZulu-Natal | 440,000 | Jean Hugo (7) |
n/a | ||
| 8 Jun | Lombard Insurance Classic | Swaziland | 400,000 | Merrick Bremner (1) |
n/a | ||
| 23 Aug | SAA Pro-Am Invitational | Western Cape | 500,000 | George Coetzee (2) |
n/a | ||
| 29 Aug | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella | Western Cape | 440,000 | Garth Mulroy (1) |
n/a | ||
| 5 Sep | Telkom PGA Pro-Am | Gauteng | 400,000 | Merrick Bremner (2) |
n/a | ||
| 13 Sep | Suncoast Classic | KwaZulu-Natal | 500,000 | Jake Roos (1) |
n/a | ||
| 19 Sep | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Humewood | Eastern Cape | 440,000 | George Coetzee (3) |
n/a | ||
| 4 Oct | Seekers Travel Pro-Am | Gauteng | 440,000 | Trevor Fisher Jnr (3) |
n/a | ||
| 12 Oct | BMG Classic | Gauteng | 500,000 |  Doug McGuigan (3) |
n/a | New tournament | |
| 19 Oct | Metmar Highveld Classic | Mpumalanga | 600,000 | James Kamte (3) |
n/a | ||
| 24 Oct | Vodacom Origins of Golf Final | Western Cape | 440,000 | Jaco van Zyl (2) |
n/a | ||
| 1 Nov | Platinum Classic | North West | 705,000 | Thomas Aiken (7) |
n/a | ||
| 9 Nov | HSBC Champions | China | US$5,000,000 |  Sergio García (n/a) |
52 | ANZ, ASA, EUR | |
| 9 Nov | MTC Namibia PGA Championship | Namibia | 1,000,000 | Tongoona Charamba (2) |
n/a | ||
| 27 Nov | Coca-Cola Charity Championship | Western Cape | 550,000 | Garth Mulroy (2) |
n/a | ||
| 3 Dec | Nedbank Affinity Cup | North West | 550,000 | Tyrone van Aswegen (2) |
n/a | ||
| 7 Dec | Nedbank Golf Challenge | North West | US$4,385,000 |  Henrik Stenson (n/a) |
34 | Limited-field event | |
| 14 Dec | Alfred Dunhill Championship | Mpumalanga | €1,000,000 | Richard Sterne (4) |
24 | EUR | |
| 21 Dec | South African Open Championship | Western Cape | €1,000,000 | Richard Sterne (5) |
40 | EUR | Flagship event |
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.[2]
| Position | Player | Events | Prize money (R) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Sterne | 5 | 5,999,265 |
| 2 | Garth Mulroy | 6 | 1,442,351 |
| 3 | Thomas Aiken | 8 | 967,378 |
| 4 | Mark Murless | 28 | 885,056 |
| 5 | James Kingston | 7 | 775,903 |
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.
Notes
- The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Sunshine Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.
- ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia; ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.
References
- "2008 Sunshine Tour schedule". Sunshine Tour. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
- "2008 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 21 December 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.