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 Sweden 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 South Africa Trevor Fisher Jnr (1) [2]
2003 9–10 May Limpopo Industrelek Classic Pietersburg Golf Club 175,000 Zimbabwe Marc Cayeux (6) [3]
2003 16–18 May Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland 175,000 South Africa Des Terblanche (11) [4]
2003 28–30 May Devonvale Championship Devonvale Conf & Golf Estate 100,000 South Africa Hendrik Buhrmann (7) Only year of this tournament [5]
2003 5–7 Jun Canon Classic Bramble Hill GC, Fancourt 100,000 South Africa Tyrol Auret Only year of this tournament [6]
2003 20–22 Jun Royal Swazi Sun Classic Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland 100,000 South Africa Nic Henning (2) [7]
2003 25–27 Jun Parmalat Classic Silver Lakes Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Desvonde Botes (10) New tournament [8]
2003 2–4 Oct Seekers Travel Pro-Am Dainfern Country Club 100,000 England Chris Williams (9) New tournament [9]
2003 10–12 Oct Bearing Man Highveld Classic Witbank Golf Club 100,000 South Africa Dion Fourie [10]
2003 30 Oct – 1 Nov Platinum Classic Mooinooi Golf Club 300,000 Scotland Doug McGuigan (1) [11]
2004 15–18 Jan South African Airways Open Erinvale Golf Club 2,650,000 South Africa Trevor Immelman (4) Co-sanctioned with European Tour [12]
2004 22–25 Jan Dunhill Championship Houghton Golf Club 3,100,000 Germany Marcel Siem Co-sanctioned with European Tour [13]
2004 29 Jan – 1 Feb Dimension Data Pro-Am Gary Player Country Club 1,000,000 South Africa Darren Fichardt (4) [14]
2004 5–8 Feb Nashua Masters Wild Coast Sun Country Club 500,000 South Africa Andrew McLardy (4) [15]
2004 12–15 Feb Telkom PGA Championship Woodhill Country Club 600,000 South Africa Warrick Druian (2) [16]
2004 19–22 Feb The Tour Championship Leopard Creek Country Club 1,200,000 South Africa Andrew McLardy (5) [17]

Order of Merit

RankPlayer[18]CountryEventsPrize 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

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