The South African PGA Championship is one of the most prestigious golf tournaments on the

Sunshine 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 ...

. It is generally played in February, depending on the Tour Schedule, with a prize fund of 2 million

rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

, and is currently held at Eye of Africa Signature Golf Estate in the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

suburb of Eikenhof.

History

The current South African PGA Championship was founded in 1965, largely thanks to

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

and Brian Henning. The inaugural event was held in February 1965 and was won by

Harold Henning Harold Henning (3 October 1934 – 1 January 2004) was a South African professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour. Early life Henning was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His brothers Allan, Brian, and Graha ...

who beat Player by 3 strokes. New sponsors in 1972 gave the championship a home at The Wanderers Golf Club where it remained until 1995, when it became the first tournament in South Africa to be 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 ...

. The following year Alfred Dunhill took over from Lexington as title sponsors, breaking a 23-year association with the PGA. Following the 1999 event, Dunhill decided to end their association with the South African PGA and create their own tournament, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, which also replaced the PGA Championship on the European calendar. As a result, there was no PGA Championship held in 2000, but the tournament returned to the Sunshine Tour the following year with a new sponsor. It is one of the richest sole-sanctioned events on the Sunshine Tour. The South African PGA Championship, along with the South African Open and the

South African Masters The South African Masters was one of the most prestigious golf tournaments on the Sunshine Tour. It was last played in 2011. Before its discontinuation, it had a prize fund of 1.2 million rand and was held at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club on t ...

formed the Triple Crown of South African golf. Winning all three titles in the same season is a feat only achieved by

Bobby Locke Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke (20 November 1917 – 9 March 1987) was a South African professional golfer. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won The Open Championship four times and 15 PGA Tour events in total ...

and Ernie Els.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Sunshine Tour
– official site
Professional Golfers Association of South Africa
– official site
Coverage on the European Tour's official site
(1995–1999) {{Former European Tour Events Sunshine Tour events Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in South Africa Sports competitions in Johannesburg Recurring sporting events established in 1965 1965 establishments in South Africa