admin
Takudzwa Chitsiga
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE will not be well represented when the 2021 Sunshine Tour golf season tee off as most players have no Tour Cards for exemption.
The Sunshine Tour will have a strong run of seven tournaments, including three which will be co-sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour.
After the season was affected by Covid-19 effects for close to eight months, The Sunshine Tour announced that it will tee off 2021 with a R1 million Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Houghton Golf Club in Johannesburg, South Africa, from February 5-7.
Local professionals failed to win some tour cards, leaving only Scott Vincent and Ben Follet-Smith eligible to take part in events without going through the pre-qualifiers.
Vincent, who recently gained a European Tour card, is likely not take part in most of the Sunshine Tour events serve for Challenge Tour co-sanctioned tournaments of the R6 million Dimension Data Pro-Am, the R3 million Cape Town Open and the R3 million Limpopo Championship.
Follet-Smith, who earned his tour card some two seasons ago after he captured the RAM Cape Town Open, will be a regular feature as he looks forward to renew his tour card either by winning a tournament or finishing in the top 50 of the order of merit.
The Sunshine Tour will have several events like The Dimension Data Pro-Am, that was won by South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout this year at Fancourt Golf Estate, George, from February 11-14.
The tournament will have each player paired with an amateur and play one round on each of the venue’s three courses – The Links, Montagu and Outeniqua – before a third round cut leaves the leading players to compete for the title in the final round.
A week later, the Cape Town Open will return to King David Mowbray Golf Club and Royal Cape Golf Club from February 18-21.
Sweden’s Anton Karlsson secured his first Challenge Tour victory in the 2020 edition of the event against the iconic backdrop of Cape Town’s Table Mountain.
The Challenge Tour’s South African Swing will conclude with the Limpopo Championship, won by South Africa’s JC Ritchie in 2020, from February 25-28 at Euphoria Golf Club and Koro Creek Golf Club as members of both Tours compete for early season Road to Mallorca Rankings points.
The Sunshine Tour will then continue with The Players Championship (offering a minimum purse of R1 million) from March 11-13 at a venue still to be announced, the R1 million Gauteng Championship presented by Betway from March 18-20 at Ebotse Golf and Country Estate, and the R1.5 million Tour Championship from March 25-28 at Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate.
Online Reporter