2003–04 Sunshine Tour

The 2003–04 Sunshine Tour was the fourth season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region.

There were 17 tournaments on the schedule. This was an increase of one from the previous year. There were three tournaments from the previous season that were eliminated: the Dimension Data Better-Ball tournament, the Vodacom Golf Classic, and the Vodacom Players Championship. Three new tournaments were added: the Canon Classic (played in 2003 only), the Devondale Championship (played in 2003 only), and the Parmalat Classic. The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 13 of the 17 tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, and one event each was held in Botswana and Zambia. Two events, the Dunhill Championship and the South African Airways Open were co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

The Order of Merit was won by Darren Fichardt.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2003–04 Sunshine Tour. 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.

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.

Year	Dates	Tournament	Venue (RSA unless stated)	Prize fund (R)	Winner	Notes	Ref
2003	6–8 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Lusaka Golf Club, Zambia	500,000	Johan Edfors	Not played again until 2006 Co-sanctioned with Challenge Tour	[1]
2003	27–29 Mar	FNB Botswana Open	Phakalane GC, Botswana	150,000	Trevor Fisher Jnr (1)		[2]
2003	9–10 May	Limpopo Industrelek Classic	Pietersburg Golf Club	175,000	Marc Cayeux (6)		[3]
2003	16–18 May	Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	175,000	Des Terblanche (11)		[4]
2003	28–30 May	Devonvale Championship	Devonvale Conf & Golf Estate	100,000	Hendrik Buhrmann (7)	Only year of this tournament	[5]
2003	5–7 Jun	Canon Classic	Bramble Hill GC, Fancourt	100,000	Tyrol Auret	Only year of this tournament	[6]
2003	20–22 Jun	Royal Swazi Sun Classic	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	100,000	Nic Henning (2)		[7]
2003	25–27 Jun	Parmalat Classic	Silver Lakes Golf Club	100,000	Desvonde Botes (10)	New tournament	[8]
2003	2–4 Oct	Seekers Travel Pro-Am	Dainfern Country Club	100,000	Chris Williams (9)	New tournament	[9]
2003	10–12 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Witbank Golf Club	100,000	Dion Fourie		[10]
2003	30 Oct – 1 Nov	Platinum Classic	Mooinooi Golf Club	300,000	Doug McGuigan (1)		[11]
2004	15–18 Jan	South African Airways Open	Erinvale Golf Club	2,650,000	Trevor Immelman (4)	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[12]
2004	22–25 Jan	Dunhill Championship	Houghton Golf Club	3,100,000	Marcel Siem	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[13]
2004	29 Jan – 1 Feb	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Gary Player Country Club	1,000,000	Darren Fichardt (4)		[14]
2004	5–8 Feb	Nashua Masters	Wild Coast Sun Country Club	500,000	Andrew McLardy (4)		[15]
2004	12–15 Feb	Telkom PGA Championship	Woodhill Country Club	600,000	Warrick Druian (2)		[16]
2004	19–22 Feb	The Tour Championship	Leopard Creek Country Club	1,200,000	Andrew McLardy (5)		[17]

Order of Merit

Rank	Player[18]	Country	Events	Prize money (R)
1	Darren Fichardt	South Africa	6	726,544.74
2	Andrew McLardy	South Africa	7	617,278.20
3	Desvonde Botes	South Africa	16	457,265.25
4	Louis Oosthuizen	South Africa	8	381,729.03
5	Titch Moore	South Africa	10	368,709.76

References

External links

• Official website