2011 Sunshine Tour
The 2011 Sunshine Tour is the 12th season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was relaunched in 2000, and the 5th 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 | 6 January 2011 – 4 December 2011 |
|---|---|
| Number of official events | 29 |
| Most wins | 3: Jean Hugo Hennie Otto |
| Order of Merit | Garth Mulroy |
← 2010 2012 → | |
The tour is based predominantly in South Africa with other events being held in neighbouring countries, including Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia and Namibia.
As usual, the tour consists of two distinct parts, commonly referred to as the "Summer Swing" and the "Winter Swing". Tournaments held during the Summer Swing generally have much higher prize funds, attract stronger fields, and are the only tournaments on the tour to carry world ranking points, with some 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 some events being held at the start of the year, and the remainder in December.
Schedule
The following table lists official events during the 2011 season.[1]
| Date | Tournament | Location | Purse (R) |
Winner[lower-alpha 1] | OWGR points |
Other tours[lower-alpha 2] |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jan | Africa Open | Eastern Cape | €1,000,000 | Louis Oosthuizen (6) |
22 | EUR | |
| 16 Jan | Joburg Open | Gauteng | €1,300,000 | Charl Schwartzel (5) |
20 | EUR | |
| 30 Jan | Africom Zimbabwe Open | Zimbabwe | 1,250,000 | Theunis Spangenberg (1) |
14 | ||
| 20 Feb | Dimension Data Pro-Am | Western Cape | 3,000,000 | Hennie Otto (10) |
14 | Pro-Am | |
| 27 Feb | Telkom PGA Championship | Gauteng | 3,250,000 | George Coetzee (4) |
14 | ||
| 20 Mar | MTC Namibia PGA Championship | Namibia | 1,200,000 | J. G. Claassen (1) |
14 | ||
| 7 May | Investec Royal Swazi Open | Swaziland | 750,000 | Justin Walters (2) |
14 | ||
| 14 May | Nashua Golf Challenge | North West | 500,000 |  Adilson da Silva (8) |
n/a | ||
| 27 May | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pretoria | Gauteng | 540,000 | Jean Hugo (11) |
n/a | ||
| 5 Jun | Lombard Insurance Classic | Swaziland | 850,000 | Justin Harding (2) |
n/a | ||
| 10 Jun | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella | Western Cape | 540,000 | Chris Swanepoel (2) |
n/a | ||
| 29 Jul | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Simola | Eastern Cape | 540,000 | Jean Hugo (12) |
n/a | ||
| 12 Aug | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Wild Coast Sun | KwaZulu-Natal | 540,000 | Darren Fichardt (11) |
n/a | ||
| 2 Sep | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Sishen | Northern Cape | 540,000 | Adilson da Silva (9) |
n/a | ||
| 9 Sep | Telkom PGA Pro-Am | Gauteng | 500,000 | Jaco van Zyl (10) |
n/a | ||
| 17 Sep | Northern Cape Classic | Northern Cape | 600,000 | Oliver Bekker (1) |
n/a | New tournament | |
| 23 Sep | Vodacom Origins of Golf Final | Limpopo | 600,000 | Jean Hugo (13) |
n/a | ||
| 8 Oct | Platinum Classic | North West | 500,000 | Hennie Otto (11) |
n/a | ||
| 15 Oct | KCM Zambia Open | Zambia | 1,200,000 |  Doug McGuigan (5) |
14 | ||
| 22 Oct | Suncoast Classic | KwaZulu-Natal | 500,000 | Darren Fichardt (12) |
n/a | ||
| 30 Oct | BMG Classic | Gauteng | 600,000 | James Kamte (4) |
n/a | ||
| 6 Nov | Nashua Masters | Eastern Cape | 1,200,000 | Shaun Norris (2) |
14 | ||
| 10 Nov | Nedbank Affinity Cup | North West | 600,000 | Warren Abery (8) |
n/a | ||
| 20 Nov | Alfred Dunhill Championship | Mpumalanga | €1,000,000 | Garth Mulroy (3) |
20 | EUR | |
| 27 Nov | SA Open Championship | Gauteng | €1,000,000 | Hennie Otto (12) |
32 | EUR | Flagship event |
| 4 Dec | Nedbank Golf Challenge | North West | US$5,000,000 |  Lee Westwood (n/a) |
38 | Limited-field 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 | Garth Mulroy | 6 | 3,464,463 |
| 2 | Hennie Otto | 7 | 2,806,214 |
| 3 | George Coetzee | 9 | 1,586,587 |
| 4 | Thomas Aiken | 6 | 1,569,896 |
| 5 | Jaco van Zyl | 8 | 1,231,134 |
Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen were ineligible for the Order of Merit having only played in three and one tournaments, respectively, during the season. Schwartzel earned R2,211,553 and Oosthuizen earned R1,394,800 from those 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.
- EUR − European Tour.
References
- "2011 Sunshine Tour schedule". Sunshine Tour. Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
- "2011 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 4 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.