2000–01 Sunshine Tour

The 2000–01 Sunshine Tour was the first season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded. Previously it had been known as the Southern Africa Tour. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region. In its first year, the prize money was over 20% lower than the amount awarded the last year of the Africa Tour (R13.6 Million in 2000–01 vs. R17.5 Million in 1999–2000).

There were 22 official events on the schedule. This was an increase of five from the last year of the Southern Africa tour, with a significant change in the list of tournaments.

There were four tournaments from the previous season that were eliminated or not played:

There were nine tournaments added/restarted for this season:

The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 17 of the 22 official tournaments being held in the country. One event each was held in Botswana, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe and two events were held in Zambia. Two events, the Dunhill Championship and the Mercedes Benz SA Open Championship were co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

The Order of Merit was won by Mark McNulty.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2000–01 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
2000 16–18 Mar Cock of the North Ndola Golf Club, Zambia 100,000 South Africa Titch Moore (1) Returning tournament after hiatus from 1986–99 [1]
2000 23–26 Mar Stanbic Zambia Open Lusaka Golf Club, Zambia 320,000 Republic of Ireland James Loughnane Returning tournament after hiatus in 1999 [2]
2000 30 Mar – 1 Apr FNB Botswana Open Gaborone Golf Club, Botswana 90,000 South Africa Richard Kaplan (4) Returning tournament after hiatus in 1999 [3]
2000 12–14 Apr Lombard Tyres Classic Krugersdorp Golf Club 75,000 South Africa Brett Liddle (5) Last year of tournament [4]
2000 5–7 May Vodacom Series: Gauteng Silver Lakes Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Nico van Rensburg (2) Last year of tournament [5]
2000 11–13 May Pietersburg Classic Pietersburg Golf Club 75,000 Zimbabwe Marc Cayeux (3) [6]
2000 26–28 May Vodacom Series: Eastern Cape East London Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Ryan Reid Last year of tournament [7]
2000 15–17 Sep Emfuleni Classic Emfuleni Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Des Terblanche (5) New tournament, only played in 2000 [8]
2000 29 Sep – 1 Oct Bearing Man Highveld Classic Witbank Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Sean Pappas (5) [9]
2000 13–15 Oct Observatory Classic Observatory Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Roger Wessels (8) New tournament, only played in 2000 [10]
2000 27–29 Oct Western Cape Classic Rondebosch Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Jean Hugo (2) [11]
2000 10–12 Nov Platinum Classic Mooi Nooi Golf Club 200,000 South Africa Desvonde Botes (9) [12]
2000 16–17 Nov Riviera Resort Classic Riviera Resort Country Club 100,000 South Africa Ulrich van den Berg (1) New tournament, only played in 2000 [13]
2000 23–26 Nov CABS Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open Royal Harare Golf Club, Zimbabwe 400,000 Zimbabwe Mark McNulty (30) [14]
2000 7–10 Dec Vodacom Players Championship Royal Cape Golf Club 1,000,000 South Africa Trevor Immelman (1) [15]
2001 11–14 Jan Nashua Nedtel Cellular Masters Wild Coast Sun Country Club 500,000 Zimbabwe Mark McNulty (31) Returning tournament after hiatus in 2000 [16]
2001 18–21 Jan Alfred Dunhill Championship Houghton Golf Club 3,250,000 Australia Adam Scott Co-sanctioned with European Tour [17]
2001 25–28 Jan Mercedes Benz SA Open Championship East London Golf Club 3,800,000 Zimbabwe Mark McNulty (32) Co-sanctioned with European Tour [18]
2001 1–4 Feb Dimension Data Better Ball Gary Player Country Club 110,000 South Africa Ulrich van den Berg Unofficial tournament [19]
2001 1–4 Feb Dimension Data Pro-Am Gary Player Country Club 1,000,000 Northern Ireland Darren Clarke [20]
2001 8–11 Feb South African PGA Championship Woodhill Country Club 500,000 South Africa Deane Pappas (1) Returning tournament after hiatus in 2000 [21]
2001 15–18 Feb Investec Royal Swazi Sun Open Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland 230,000 South Africa Bradford Vaughan (3) [22]
2001 22–25 Feb The Tour Championship Leopard Creek Country Club 1,250,000 South Africa Darren Fichardt (2) New tournament [23]

Order of Merit

RankPlayer[24]CountryEventsPrize money (R)
1 Mark McNulty  Zimbabwe 6 1,603,481.36
2 Bradford Vaughan  South Africa 18 686,414.88
3 Roger Wessels  South Africa 8 632,383.40
4 Hennie Otto  South Africa 12 620,210.65
5 Trevor Immelman  South Africa 10 619,765.87

References

External links

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