The 2006–07 Sunshine Tour was the seventh season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000. It marked the last year of a seasonal calendar. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region. In 2005–06 there had been 21 tournaments. Of those, two tournaments were last held in 2005, but there were eight tournaments added for the 2006–07 schedule bringing the total up to 27. The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 24 of the 27 tournaments being held in the country. One event each was held in Swaziland,

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. The new tournaments were the Stanbic Zambia Open, which returned after a hiatus in 2005, two South African Airways Pro-Am Invitational tournaments, the Sun Coast Classic, the Eskom Power Cup, the Coca-Cola Charity Championship, the first sanctioned year of the

Nedbank Golf Challenge The Nedbank Golf Challenge, previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge, is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, North West province, South Africa. It was first played in 1981 and ...

, and the

Joburg Open The Joburg Open is a men's professional golf tournament that is held in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is an event on the Southern Africa-based Sunshine Tour and co-sanctioned by the European Tour, which attracts a larger prize fund and stronger ...

which was co-sanctioned by the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

. 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, with three events being co-sanctioned with the European Tour. With the switch to a calendar-based schedule in 2007, the last five events of the 2006–07 season were also considered part of the 2007 schedule, and counted towards the final standings of both. The Order of Merit was won for the third straight time by

Charl Schwartzel Charl Adriaan Schwartzel ( ; born 31 August 1984) is a South African professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf Invitational Series and has previously played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. He has won one maj ...

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2006–07 season.

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit 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 Eswatin ...

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature (he stands ) along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victor ...

was the highest money winner (with R1,734,659.33) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in three events. Álvaro Quirós was second in the money list (with R1,497,033.00) thanks to his victory in the

Alfred Dunhill Championship The Alfred Dunhill Championship is a men's professional golf tournament which is played in South Africa. It is part of the Southern African Sunshine Tour and is one of several events in South Africa that are co-sanctioned by the more prestigious ...

, but as a non-tour member and having not entered sufficient events, he was also ineligible for the Order of Merit.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2006-07 Sunshine Tour Sunshine Tour Sunshine Tour Sunshine Tour