The Zimbabwe Open is a 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 ...

tournament held in Zimbabwe, currently played on the Sunshine Tour.

History

The tournament was first played in 1984 and from 1985 to 1992 was part of the Safari Circuit, a collection of events in Africa that were played by professionals based on 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 ...

during their winter. In 1991 and 1992 the event was also part of the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History T ...

. From 1993 it moved onto the First National Bank Tour, which was later renamed the Sunshine Tour. When it was held in the weeks preceding 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 ...

, the tournament attracted some of the world's leading players, as they used it as a warm up to the big money invitational. Past winners include major winners

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( hif, विजय सिंह ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two ...

and

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean retired professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-19 ...

who, along with

Mark McNulty Mark William McNulty (born 24 March 1953) is a Zimbabwean-Irish professional golfer. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and featured in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for ...

, is the most successful player at the event, both men having recorded three victories. Ryder Cup player Gordon J. Brand is also a past winner. Due to economic instability in Zimbabwe the tournament lost sponsors and was cancelled prior to the 2002 event. There were many attempts to resurrect the tournament, but none were successful until 2010. The 2019 edition was also cancelled because of a lack of sponsors caused by a weak economy. Having not been played in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the tournament returned in 2022, sponsored by FBC Bank. It had been anticipated that the event would be added to the

2023 European Tour The 2023 European Tour, titled as the 2023 DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, is the 52nd season of golf tournaments since the European Tour officially began in 1972. It is the second season of the tour under a title sponsorship agreement wi ...

schedule. However, this never came to fruition, mainly due to due to changes in the venue qualifying criteria set by the European Tour. It is anticipated that the tournament will become a European Tour event in 2024 instead.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Sunshine Tour
– official site {{Sunshine Tour Events Safari Circuit events Sunshine Tour events Former Challenge Tour events Golf tournaments in Zimbabwe Sport in Harare Spring (season) events in Zimbabwe Recurring sporting events established in 1984 1984 establishments in Zimbabwe