Category: Uncategorized

By Michael Vlismas

Adilson da Silva belongs to a time in golf the likes of which we will probably never see again. A time when a young Brazilian boy from a humble family in Santa Cruz do Sol outside Rio collected golf balls and caddied for pocket money, and used a tree branch shaped like a golf club as his first bit of equipment in the game.

This week, in The Players Championship at Dainfern Golf Estate starting on Thursday, Da Silva will tee it up as a 49-year-old professional universally respected by his fellow pros for his humility, his 12 Sunshine Tour titles, and for being possibly the greatest gentleman in this gentleman’s game.

For Da Silva, it’s a journey built by some good fortune and a lot of hard work.

“Growing up it was very difficult in Brazil,” he says. “My parents didn’t have much. They did their best for us, but my father was a carpenter and my mother didn’t really have just one job. I have three brothers and one sister. We were a big family and my parents were under pressure. So if you wanted anything extra, you had to work for it yourself. After school I would go to the golf course to look for balls or caddie jobs. You lived and worked just for the next day, and it was hard. But once I came in contact with golf, things changed quite a bit for me.”

It was as a young caddie at the local golf course that Da Silva met Andrew Edmondson, a tobacco buyer from Zimbabwe who used to travel to Brazil for his work. Da Silva started out as Edmondson’s caddie, and then became his playing partner during a few rounds. And it was Edmondson who first spotted Da Silva’s talent and encouraged it.

Da Silva won the Brazil Amateur Championship in 1990 and 1991, and Edmondson convinced him to travel back to Zimbabwe with him where he could receive proper coaching.

“I was really fortunate to get that opportunity. In Brazil in those days, it was almost impossible to get into golf if you didn’t have money. You had to buy what we called a title at a golf club. Golf in Brazil in those days was a very closed society. So I was very fortunate to get a chance to move away from there and do something in this incredible game.”

And he didn’t waste any time either.

Da Silva won the Zimbabwe Amateur in 1992 as well as a bunch of other tournaments, then turned professional in 1994 and was already winning qualifying tournaments on the winter leg of the Sunshine Tour in his rookie year. In 1997 he made his breakthrough, winning the Leopard Rock Classic by four strokes with rounds of 64, 69 and 66. A year later he added his second title, the Nashua Wild Coast Sun Challenge. His most recent victory was on the Asian Tour in the 2018 Taiwan Masters.

“It’s been such an experience for me,” says Da Silva as he reflects on a journey on the Sunshine Tour where he’s witnessed some of the biggest stars develop their games. And last weekend in the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am, he played with another which he believes could be just as big.

“I played the final round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am with Wilco Nienaber. On the final green I just had to tell him what a privilege it was to play with him. You just don’t get to see that kind of talent every day. I once played a tournament in Malaysia with a long drive champion, and I told Wilco he’s in a league of his own with his long drives. I watched him hit that first drive on the first tee and I could hardly see the ball coming off the clubhead it was so fast. And he just nailed it 380 metres down the middle of the fairway. Already at this age he has everything, and I think he’s going to be unbeatable.”

But Da Silva says he’s become used to seeing this kind of talent on the Sunshine Tour.

“It’s just insane how good the golfers are here. It’s amazing the golf talent in this country. For me to be here and still playing amongst this kind of talent just makes you better and makes you want to work harder on your own game.”

Such is Da Silva’s humility that he won’t even entertain the thought that it just might be a privilege for the young stars of today to be playing with him, considering the longevity of his career.

“Look, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done okay. But you look back and you think that maybe you could’ve done better. I wish in the past I had worked harder on my mental game, because this game is all mental. But I’m happy with myself. I enjoy practicing and getting better. If I could stay on the range for five or six hours a day I would because I enjoy it so much.”

But as a husband and father of three, Da Silva is very aware to not neglect that side of life he also enjoys.

“I’ve been on the road for over 25 years, and this period during lockdown and all of that is the longest time I’ve been at home. It’s been a pleasure actually. It’s not an easy life being on tour all the time. You can’t complain because it’s work and it’s a nice work to have. But it’s a lonely life at times.”

With one year to go until he becomes a senior, Da Silva has his sights set on the PGA Tour Champions.

But whatever he goes on to still achieve, one moment will forever remain possibly the greatest highlight of his career.

In 2016 when Brazil hosted the Olympics, Da Silva was selected to hit the first shot in the Olympic golf competition which marked the return of the game to the Olympic fold for the first time in over a century.

“That was insane. I was so nervous. I couldn’t sleep for three nights before. It still gives me goosebumps to have had that honour. I was very tense right up until a few seconds before I hit that ball. Then I got control of myself and just enjoyed it. I don’t know why they chose me. There were so many other great golfers that deserved it more than me.”

And yet if you know Da Silva, you’ll know the game couldn’t have had a greater gentleman to represent it at such an auspicious occasion. The boy from Brazil who took a tree branch and a golf ball, and went after his dream.

Photo Credit: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

By Jim McCabe

Memories easily fade in our mad-rush, 24 hours per day, seven days per week world. And when you factor in the numbing COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the globe for more than a year now, well, there’s not a lot of time that’s been saved for nostalgia.

Which is a shame when one considers the superb talents that were once in the possession of Tim Clark, but are now covered in cobwebs, a victim of unfortunate happenstance. Gutty as it was that Clark rose to PGA Tour prominence despite being born with a left arm that could not be extended (thus he could not supinate), his career deserves more than anniversary footnotes:

To wit:

The upcoming PLAYERS Championship will be the 10^th one competed since Clark posted a stirring come-from-behind victory in 2010. And it was just five years ago – the 2016 American Express in Palm Springs, California — when Clark played what might very well be his final PGA Tour tournament.

Surreal, such a consideration for a world-class ball-striker to not play beyond the age of 40. But that is sadly where Clark stands.

“With my back, I’m not playing any golf at all. I tried (more than a month ago), but it wasn’t good at all. I can chip and putt, but no full swings,” said Clark, 45, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife, Candice, and two children, Jack and Olivia.

“I cannot even play socially.”

So much of this could be digested and shaped into a pity for Clark, only the South African brushes that aside. Feeling blessed to have played at the highest level of professional golf for nearly 15 years, he won twice on the PGA Tour, piled up 54 top-10 finishes, competed in three Presidents Cups, and was a brilliantly straight driver of the golf ball who knew his limitations and never uttered a word of complaint.

“What I did with what I had, I’m very proud of,” said Clark. “Looking back, I was able to stay on Tour for as long as I was and to be competitive, and that’s a sense of accomplishment.

“All of us look back at things we didn’t do, how we didn’t win as much as we’d like, but when I look back at my career, I never once had to struggle to secure my card. I wanted to play longer, and I felt like I was getting better, but obviously it didn’t play out that way.”

When they gather at TPC Sawgrass for the 2021 PLAYERS Championship March 11-14, there will be opportunities to recall a list of heralded winners from recent years – Matt Kuchar in 2012, Tiger Woods in 2013, followed by Martin Kaymer, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, then Webb Simpson in 2018 and Rory McIlroy in the most recent PLAYERS, in 2019. (The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Stellar star power, for sure, and Clark – unlike Woods and Kaymer and Day and McIlroy – never was No. 1 in the world. But neither was he ever an afterthought, not with his ability to ball-strike it with the best of them.

“He is a proper competitor, that one,” Geoff Ogilvy once said of Clark. “He is competitive. He’s impressive when he gets down the stretch.”

Never did the competitive fires in the 5-foot-7, 170-pound Clark burn quite like they did during the 2010 PLAYERS. Having stood seven shots back through 36 holes, he fired a third-round 66 and started Sunday’s final round just three off the lead.

“I had been on Tour nine years hadn’t won at that point,” said Clark. “I was saying to myself, ‘Is this ever going to happen?”

THE PLAYERS Stadium Course was firm and fast that May week, perfect for Clark, who rarely missed fairways and never felt overwhelmed by a golf course, even as the era of the bombers was taking hold.

“I always felt, I was as good with my hybrid (or long iron) as my competitor was with his 6-iron.”

He had come into the tournament playing “quite poorly, to be honest,” but as he got settled into a rhythm, Clark found “my own little world.”

When Clark made an 8-footer at the 18^th hole to shoot a final-round 67, he was 16-under and settled into the locker room with the lead and a TV view of the two players, Lee Westwood and Robert Allenby, who could catch him.

They quickly squandered things away. Westwood, the 54-hole leader, hit into the water at the par-3 17th island green and made double. Allenby, needing to play at 2-under over the final three holes to tie, burned the cup at the par-5 16^th with his eagle putt, and could not birdie either 17 or 18.

Finally, Clark was a PGA Tour winner.

“I always felt I could play the big tournaments,” he said. “I enjoyed the big events. And that week was as good as I could play.”

There would be a second win at the RBC Canadian Open in 2014, then late that fall in an ultimate David vs. Goliath playoff, Clark was beaten by Bubba Watson in the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. Seemingly on top of his game, the dynamo from Durban seemed poised for another solid run of golf.

Little did he know it was about to come to a crashing halt.

Clark played in just 13 tournaments in the 2014-15 season, his play limited because of a pulled tendon in his left elbow. Feeling healthy in 2015-16, he was excited to get going, only to start feeling issues with his back.

“I didn’t know what was wrong, so I kept going out, trying to play,” said Clark. “We took a series of MRIs and all they showed was arthritis in the spine.”

He took injections. He was hopeful. He headed to Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, “a place I could play blindfolded,” and shot 66-69-65-68, finished joint 13^th and was optimistic that he had turned the corner.

Instead, he played one more tournament, rounds of 78—68-74 in Palm Springs. The back pain was insufferable. He went to the sidelines and, unthinkable as it is, has never returned to competition since.

“I’ve seen different doctors and a team of surgeons. We’ve looked at the images and exhausted all the options,” said Clark.

Surgery has been proposed, one suggestion being to remove part of his ribs where they attach to the spine. “But there’s no guarantee,” said Clark. “It’s not a surgery done very often. It’s the only thing they think they can do, but they aren’t sure it will help.

“At the end of the day, I ask myself, ‘Is it worth the risk?’”

For now, the answer is no. Clark will pursue physical therapy and “I’ll continue to try certain things” to alleviate the pain. He always saw his 50^th birthday as an opportunity he’d jump at and Clark remains optimistic that the PGA TOUR Champions will be in his future.

“But the bottom line is, I have to be healthy.” – PGATOUR.com. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Africlear, a global specialist in tailor-made packaging solutions, has partnered with the Sunshine Tour to offer a new eco-friendly bottled water solution at the upcoming Sunshine Tour events.

At the next three tournaments – the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am, the Players Championship and the Gauteng Championship presented by Betway – Africlear will provide bottled water for the Sunshine Tour professionals.

But as part of the Tour’s drive to be an environmentally sensitive Tour with a strong focus on limiting the impact its tournaments have on the local environment, Africlear will also offer an extensive plastic bottle recycling programme at each tournament.

“We love golf, we love the incredible golf courses where the Sunshine Tour events are played, and we want to help look after them,” said Africlear CEO Dewald Gelderblom.

“Our goal is to bring clean bottled water at a reasonable price to the Sunshine Tour professionals while at the same time cleaning up afterwards and caring for our environment.”

Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, welcomed Africlear as a new partner.

“This is another important step for us in our quest to have partners who add value to what we as a Tour are trying to achieve, and in this instance it’s our desire to make as little impact on the environment of the golf courses where we play and to leave them in the same pristine condition as when they were entrusted to us by the club management and members.”

It was around 13:30 on Sunday afternoon when Rhys Enoch’s wife, Lynn, sent him a text saying she was sorry but she couldn’t keep her eyes open and was going to have a Sunday nap, and that she hopes he finishes strong in the final round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am. He did. He went out and won.

Enoch birdied his final three holes – including a chip-in birdie from the bunker on 17 –  on the East Course to close with a 67 and win by one stroke on 12 under par.

South Africa’s Dean Burmester had already finished in the clubhouse on 11 under par with a 66, but Enoch had to endure watching Jake Redman stand over a roughly two-metre birdie putt on the last to force a playoff. Redman missed the putt to sign for a 72 and share second with Burmester.

“I fully expected Jake to make that putt. I’m sad for him that he missed, but obviously I’m delighted I came out on top,” said Enoch, who added to his 2018 Cape Town Open triumph on the Sunshine Tour.

“I’m over the moon. I really didn’t think I was that close to the lead. When we came up 18 with the leaderboard there, my caddie said to me, ‘Don’t look left. Just focus on your putt’. So I did and made the putt for birdie on 18. Then Jake unfortunately missed his and I’d won.”

With a fast start by the likes of Luke Brown and Redman, Enoch admits he didn’t think he was in the running for the title early in the final round.

“They all shot off to -14 and I was around -8 or -9, and I thought it might have slipped from me. Then I got to 15 and saw I was only two behind. But then I three-putted for bogey to be three behind with three to play. An then came those three birdies. This game is crazy and winning is not easy, but I managed to get over the line today.”

And one of the first things he did was text his delighted wife back, with a photo of him and the trophy.

“This win is extremely satisfying. You know, it’s been really tough with this pandemic. It’s been wonderful to be at home and spend time with my wife and my son Carter. But at the same time it’s been stressful with my golf. It’s just feels great to win. This is like a confirmation of the hard work paying off. And to be able to win on a quality golf course like this makes it even sweeter.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo Credit: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

Storm clouds forced the suspension of the second round of the Sunshine Tour’s Kit Kat Group Pro-Am on Saturday, but not before Johannesburg professional Luke Brown was able to find the silver lining.

Dangerous weather at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club forced a suspension of play at 16:10, and the round will have to be completed on Sunday morning before the start of the final round.

But Brown was able to make it into the clubhouse with a sublime seven-under-par 65 that carried him to the top of the leaderboard on 10 under par, and which has him chasing his maiden victory on the Sunshine Tour. Jake Redman is currently tied for the lead on 10 under with three holes of his second round to complete.

“You’re always pleased with a round of seven under, but on this course and with the conditions as gusty as they were today, I’m super pleased,” said Brown, a two-time winner on the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour who is now looking to make the step up at Sunshine Tour level.

He started his round with an eagle on the par-five first hole, then built on that with four birdies in six holes from the fifth. His only bogey of the round came on the fearsome par-four 11^th, but he made up for that by chipping in for birdie on the 16^th – following his playing partner Mitchell who did the same just moments earlier – and then finishing with a birdie on 18.

“My wedge play was very good today. I hit so many wedges to inside of two metres. The bogey on 11 didn’t bother me too much because that is just such a tough hole, and the flag was in a very difficult position. Overall I was pleased to have played the par fives a bit better than I did in the first round, stating with the eagle on the first.”

Redman will still have an opportunity to have his say when he wraps up the final three holes of his second round on Sunday morning. Callum Mowat and Malcolm Mitchell are currently next best in the clubhouse on eight under. Young star Jayden Schaper is at seven under with four holes of his second round still to come, while Garrick Higgo will feel he’s not out of it at six under with five holes of his second round still to play.

It’s a busy leaderboard around Brown, but he’s doing his best to keep focused on the only thing he can control.

“In the end it’s still just you and the golf course. Sure, it’s a step up from the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour. The courses are set up harder and the competition is tougher, but this is where I wanted to be at the start of the tournament. So all I can do is just play my own game and not worry too much about everybody else.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo Credit: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour.

Dean Burmester and Ockie Strydom shared the lead with their rounds of seven-under-par 65 in the first round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s East Course on Friday.

They finished a weather-interrupted day one stroke clear of the South African duo of Malcolm Mitchell and Jake Redman, and Welshman Rhys Enoch.

The first tournament of the Sunshine Tour’s 2021 calendar has drawn a strong contingent of young stars including Garrick Higgo, who is two shots off the lead. Jayden Schaper opened with a round of four under 68 and Wilco Nienaber signed for a 69.

Burmester, playing the back nine first, started strong with birdies at holes 10 and 11 which are amongst the longest back-to-back par fours in golf.

“A birdie-birdie start is always nice, especially on those two holes. That definitely boosted the confidence,” he said. “Those are not the easiest par fours out there. For many years they were the longest back-to-back par fours in the southern hemisphere. You need good tee shots on both.”

He capped off his round with an equally strong finish of three birdies in the final four holes.

“When it comes to the front nine here you always feel like you want to take advantage because you have three par fives there. I didn’t birdied the par-five first, so it was nice to get the other two.”

While it was a bogey-free start for Burmester, he still feels there’s room for improvement.

“There’s always work to be done. I didn’t hit too many fairways, but when I missed I was on the right side so I was able to keep giving myself chances. But it’s just so good to be back playing on the Sunshine Tour again, and back at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington as well.”

Strydom, who played his first full round of golf last week after recovering from a back injury, had a more adventurous start with two birdies, two bogeys and an eagle in his opening six holes. His short game came to the fore with that eagle on the par-five sixth where he holed a lob wedge from a difficult downhill lie at the back of the green. Then he finished his round with three straight birdies.

“This is not an easy course. You’ve really got to keep your head around here, so seven under is a good round for me,” he said.

“I’m in a good space with my game. As I’ve recovered from my back injury I’ve been working a lot more on my swing technique with my coach, and it’s starting to show in the ball flight. I have a lot more confidence in terms of my swing and knowing exactly where the ball will go.”

Sunshine Tour professional Dylan Naidoo will tee it up in Friday’s first round of the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club somewhat jetlagged, but with a very clear vision regarding his future in the game.

Naidoo has just returned from the United States where he managed to secure conditional playing privileges on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour of Canada after finishing tied ninth in their Qualifying School, which was played at Weston Hills Golf Club in Florida at the end of February.

It’s a massive step forward for the 23-year-old professional, who turned pro in 2019 as one of GolfRSA’s top amateur talents and who in his first season on the Sunshine Tour finished third in the Rookie of the Year race behind winner Garrick Higgo and second-placed Wilco Nienaber.

“It’s really exciting and it’s nice to know that I have it in me and have that experience now of playing in a different setting with new players. It gives me confidence for what I’m trying to do with my career,” said Naidoo, who will play the following seven tournaments on the Sunshine Tour before returning to the United States to play on the Mackenzie Tour.

“I want to be the best golfer in the world. I want to be playing on the PGA Tour and European Tour. I feel like this will open my eyes a lot and I’ll probably learn some hard lessons along the way. But it’s the way to go for me.”

Naidoo made the decision to go and qualify when the Sunshine Tour had to postpone the start of its 2021 schedule by one month because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“I figured I can either stay here or try and find something to play overseas. Then the United States decided they would implement travel restrictions and not allow South Africans into the country from the end of January. So I had to scramble and get myself over there before these restrictions. I managed to get my things together and left on Thursday 28 January. Fortunately I already had a 10-year visa. I left on the Thursday, arrived in the US on Friday, and from that Saturday onwards they closed the borders to South Africans. So I just made it in. I played a few mini tour events and then the Qualifying School.”

There were 25 cards on offers, with only the top six gaining full status on the Mackenzie Tour and the rest earning conditional status.

“I should be guaranteed starts for at least half of their season. I wanted the top 6, but I still played well and am not going to complain. It’s a good start getting the Mackenzie Tour card because it gives you a firm hold in the US. If you play well there you can get onto the Korn Ferry Tour. My goal this year was to get some playing status on another world tour, and I’ve achieved that.” – By Michael Vlismas

Photo Credit: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

By Michael Vlismas

Gary Player said change is the price of survival. But the secret for every professional golfer is to know when to change. Or in the case of multiple Sunshine Tour and Asian Tour champion Jbe Kruger, whether you should even change at all.

For Kruger, the search for change to his swing has brought him full circle to the realisation that his old swing is exactly what he needs to get back to. It’s a process he’ll continue with at this week’s Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, which begins on Friday and marks the start of the Sunshine Tour’s 2021 schedule.

“I want to get my swing natural again and go back to the root of how I used to play,” says Kruger, who has endured a frustrating few years of trying to change that foundation in the pursuit of improvement.

“My strength was always my ball striking. I was good because I hit the ball really well. I always said I just need to make putts to score well, because I knew I never had to worry about my ball striking. But the last few years that hasn’t been the case. In my desire to improve, I lost that strong point to my game.”

At 1.6 metres tall, Kruger has long been used to punching above his weight in world golf. He’s won six times in his career, and climbed to an Official World Golf Ranking high of 109. But he’s since slipped to 480^th in the world.

“The problem is that you spend a few years working on something that just isn’t working out for you. It’s almost like I’ve gone 10 000 hours in the wrong way, so there are a lot of things I now have to unlearn with my swing get rid of. It’s unnatural, and I need to get my swing back to being natural.”

Kruger points out that he is certainly not the first professional golfer to have made the mistake of trying to fix what isn’t broken.

“Take a look at Francesco Molinari. In 2018 he won his first Major and won the European Tour’s Race to Dubai. And then he decided he needed to change his swing. In 2011 Luke Donald became the first golfer in history to win both the PGA Tour and European Tour Order of Merits. But he decided that because he’d never won a Major yet, he needed to change his swing. It’s almost like you don’t trust your own process that got you there in the first place.

“I can’t understand why as golfers we all follow the same pattern. The lesson for me is that you can only get better by practising harder. If your basics are good, then practice is the only thing to get better. For me it took at least a year to change my swing, and it felt like two years to get confident with it. Now I have to unlearn that. It’s all about coming to the realisation that what brought you here will keep you here. You forget that. You feel you need to change to get better. But just practising more will make you better.”

Kruger’s desire to change back to the way he used to play is as strong as ever, and one that emerged from a simple frustration.

“You just get tired of playing bad golf. I know how good I was and how good I hit it, and I know the reason. The proof will be in these next tournaments on the Sunshine Tour. I’ve had glimpses of it coming back, but to be honest it feels like I’m only 50% there. But then again, for me that’s a 50% improvement in getting back to what I was. I don’t mean this to sound arrogant, but I was in the top 110 in the world and it didn’t feel hard for me to get there. My memory of that keeps driving me.”

And a conversation with Lee Westwood is also driving him to keep working at it.

“Just recently I spent about an hour chatting to Lee Westwood. I really like getting into other players’ heads and hearing how they think and approach things. His career seemed like it was over at one stage, and then he won the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City. Now, when you speak to him, it’s like he’s young in spirit again. You can see in his eyes he’s just got this love for the game again. Sometimes you run on memory in this game.”

For Kruger, it’s the memory of a swing that was good enough to take a kid from Kimberley to six professional victories.

Photo Credit: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

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