Month: February 2021

Sunshine Tour professionals JC Ritchie and Daniel van Tonder will this week reap the rewards of their home success with a chance to take on the best in world golf in the WGC-Workday Championship in Florida.

Ritchie and Van Tonder qualified for the exclusive 72-man field by virtue of their finishes of first and second respectively on the Sunshine Tour’s 2019/20 Order of Merit.

They join a South African contingent also including Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Erik van Rooyen and Louis Oosthuizen that will tee it up at The Concession Golf Club starting this Thursday. The field includes 48 of the top 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking, including world number one Dustin Johnson, competing for a $10.5 million purse.

Ritchie won three times on the Sunshine Tour in 2019 and twice early in 2020, and will be making only his second appearance in a WGC event since finishing 76^th in the WGC-HSBC Champions in 2018.

Van Tonder was in prolific form when the Sunshine Tour emerged from the hard lockdown in August last year, winning three of the five Rise-Up Series tournaments and then adding the Investec Royal Swazi Open in October. This will be his third appearance in a WGC event and his first since 2015.

“I’ve been in Florida for about 21 days prior to this week where I’ve been working hard on my game and been getting used to the different grass and the fast greens over here,” said Van Tonder.

“I’m going to give it my best shot and hopefully bring home the trophy.” – Michael Vlismas

The Sunshine Tour, Sunshine Ladies Tour and SuperSport are building on their longstanding broadcast partnership with an even more comprehensive offering that will dramatically increase the content value for local golf fans and give South African professional golf a greater presence on the World of Champions.

From March this year, SuperSport will provide live coverage – for a minimum of two rounds and three hours daily – and highlights packages of the upcoming Sunshine Tour events as well as the Investec South African Women’s Open on the Sunshine Ladies Tour.

The broadcast partnership also includes daily tournament inserts that will showcase the professionals on the Sunshine Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour, giving fans a world-class offering of South African professional golf at a time when physical attendance of tournaments is still not allowed under the Coronavirus health regulations.

“We are delighted to announce the growth of this partnership with SuperSport into this next phase, which is going to significantly enhance our product and bring golf fans everything they could ever want in terms of live tournament coverage, highlights and more from the Sunshine Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour,” said Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour.

“Although this is an enhanced broadcast partnership, it is a partnership with an already longstanding supporter of South African professional golf and the Sunshine Tour. SuperSport has always been unwavering in its support of the Tour, and this is a partnership that has been deeply developed over the years by our Executive Director Selwyn Nathan, which has given us this platform upon which we can now build into new and exciting broadcast options.

“SuperSport shares our vision to enhance the entertainment value of our brand and give fans a greater insight into the lives of our professionals and we’re very pleased to be able to work with them towards achieving this goal.”

Marc Jury, CEO of SuperSport, said they were equally excited about the further development of this partnership and the chance to expand their coverage of local professional golf.

“Golf has always been an important and valued market for SuperSport, and this partnership continues our commitment to South African sport. Through our innovative content offerings, we’ll be able to showcase the incredible talent the Sunshine Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour produces, and keep telling the story of their ongoing success.”

SUNSHINE TOUR

March 5-7: R1 000 000 Kit Kat Group Pro-Am, Royal JHB and Kensington GC

March 11-14: R1 000 000 Players Championship, Dainfern Country Club

March 18-21: R1 000 000 Gauteng Championship presented by Betway, Ebotse Links

March 24-28: R1 500 000 Serengeti Invitational, Serengeti Estates

April 22-25: R3 000 000 Limpopo Championship, Euphoria Golf & Lifestyle Estate : Co-Sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour

29 April-2 May: R3 000 000 Cape Town Open, Royal Cape Golf Club : Co-Sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour

May 6-9: R6 300 000 Dimension Data Pro-Am : Co-Sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour

SUNSHINE LADIES TOUR

May 13-16: €200 000 Investec South African Women’s Open, Westlake Golf Club

The Sunshine Tour has appointed 30South Eyewear as the official eyewear supplier to the Tour for 2021.

The Proudly South African company was founded in 2017 with the goal of providing high quality yet affordable eyewear made with the same materials as the world’s leading eyewear brands.

It has now added golf to its steadily expanding eyewear offering that supports a variety of sports such as cricket, rugby, sailing, running, rowing, fishing, mountaineering, climbing, skiing, kayaking, kitesurfing and mountain biking.

30South Eyewear currently has Sunshine Tour and European Tour champions Darren Fichardt and Dean Burmester as its leading golf ambassadors, as well as Sunshine Tour winners Merrick Bremner, Thriston Lawrence, Jacques Kruyswijk and Hennie du Plessis, rising Sunshine Tour stars Luca Filippi, Dylan Naidoo and Deon Germishuys, Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour winner Vaughn van Deventer, and South Africa’s number one ranked amateur Casey Jarvis.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be named the official eyewear supplier to the Sunshine Tour and to be able to support South African professional golf and its incredible golfers as they proudly fly the country’s flag on the fairways,” said Richard McEnery, who co-founded 30South with his childhood friend Jamie Cockayne.

“South African golfers are amongst our country’s greatest ambassadors as they compete all over the world and are regularly at the top of leaderboards. This is an amazing opportunity for us to partner with the world-class brand that is the Sunshine Tour and bring a Proudly South African product to the success story that is South African professional golf.”

Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, welcomed 30South Eyewear as a partner to the Tour.

“We’re very pleased to have 30South Eyewear as a partner on the Sunshine Tour, and as a company which shares our vision of being a local brand with a global impact. Our members are equally excited to partner with a company that is investing in South African professional golf and which recognises the value our professionals offer as arguably South Africa’s most consistently successful sportsmen week in and week out around the world.”

Brandon Stone was delighted with his performance as he showed all his battling qualities to finish second at the 2021 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.