The 1975–76 Southern Africa Tour was the fifth season of the

Southern Africa Tour The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa. For much of its early history it was known either as the South African Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the Vod ...

. The season was dominated by

Dale Hayes Dale Hayes (born 1 July 1952) is a South African professional golfer. Career outline Hayes won the 15–17 Boys category at the Junior World Golf Championships in 1969. He turned professional the following year and quickly became a successful p ...

and

Allan Henning Allan Henning (born 1 June 1944) is a former professional golfer from South Africa. Henning was born into a golfing family. His brothers Harold, Brian, and Graham all became professional golfers. Henning turned professional in 1962 and won 18 ...

who won the majority of the events. Hayes started the season excellently, winning the first two events. However, Henning won the Datsun International and NCR Western Province Open to close in on the Order of Merit race. Hayes won the flagship event, the BP South African Open, but Henning won the season's final event, the

Rhodesian Dunlop Masters The Rhodesian Dunlop Masters was a golf tournament that was held in Rhodesia. It was an event on the Southern Africa Tour until the late 1970s. History The tournament rotated round three host courses, Royal Salisbury Golf Club and Chapman G ...

, to capture Order of Merit honors.

Season outline

The first tournament of the season was the Beck's PGA Championship at Wanderers Golf Club. There was a 36-hole finale due to a rainout on Friday. Hayes shot a 62 (−8) in the third round which "virtually assured" that he would be victorious. He it described as his best round ever. The round broke the course recorded by three shots. Hayes followed it up with a three-under-par 67 to defeat Henning, the solo runner-up, by six shots. Hayes won the following event, the Holiday Inns Open, as well, defeating

John Fourie Jonathan Adriaan Fourie (born 23 August 1939) is a South African professional golfer. Fourie was born in Johannesburg. He turned professional in 1970 and spent his career playing mainly on the Southern Africa Tour and the European Tour. He won ...

in a playoff. Henning won the fourth official tournament of the season, the Datsun International, while Hayes finished runner-up. The next week, at the

ICL International The ICL International was a golf tournament in South Africa as part of the South African Tour. International stars like Gary Player, Nick Faldo, and Nick Price won the event. The tournament was initially played at Kensington Golf Club in Johann ...

, Hayes and Henning finished joint runner-up, one behind England's Peter Townsend. Henning then won the next event, the NCR Western Province Open. In late January, Hayes tied

at the end of regulation at the BP South African Open. Like earlier in the season, Hayes again defeated Fourie in a playoff. Henning, however, won the final event of the year, the

. This assured that he secured the Order of Merit by a small margin over Hayes.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1975–76 season.

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the Southern Africa Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Order of Merit

The

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in

South African rand The South African rand, or simply the rand, ( sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatini ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1975-76 Southern Africa Tour Sunshine Tour