The 2007 Sunshine Tour was the eighth season of professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000, and the marked the beginning of a new era as the tour switched to a calendar based season, having previously been seasonal. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region. The tour was based predominantly in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, with 24 of the 28 tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, with one each in

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 ...

. There were five new tournaments, 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 ...

, one of three events co-sanctioned by the

PGA 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 fif ...

, the

Nashua Golf Challenge The Sun City Challenge is a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It has been played annually since 2007. From 2007 to 2011 it was called the Nashua Golf Challenge and was held at the Gary Player Country Club, although from 2007 to 2009 the second ...

, the Lombard Insurance Classic, the returning Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and the

Nedbank Affinity Cup The Nedbank Affinity Cup was a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It was founded in 2007 as a precursor to the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and is played at the Gary Player designed Lost City Golf Course, in Sun City, North West, South Africa ...

, introduced to the schedule as an appetizer to the high profile

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 ...

. 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 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 ...

. The Winter Swing ran from March to November, starting with the Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and closing with the Coca-Cola Charity Championship. Since the tour switched to a calendar based season, this part of the tour effectively splits the Summer Swing into two, with five events being held at the start of the year, and the remainder in December. Due to these scheduling changes, the first five events of the 2007 season had already been part of the 2006–07 tour schedule, but continued to count towards the final standings of both. The Order of Merit was won for the first time by James Kingston, breaking

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 ...

's three year stranglehold on the title.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2007 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 fifth highest money winner (with R1,120,503.20) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in three events. John Bickerton and Ariel Cañete were second and fourth respectively in the money list thanks to their victories 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 ...

and the

, but as non tour members, and having not entered sufficient events, they were also ineligible for the Order of Merit.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Sunshine Tour seasons Sunshine Tour Sunshine Tour