2001–02 Sunshine Tour

The 2001–02 Sunshine Tour was the second season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region.

There were 22 official events on the schedule. This was an decrease of one from the previous year, but there was a significant change in the list of tournaments.

There were eight tournaments from the previous season that were eliminated or not played:

• Riviera Resort Classic
• Vodacom Series: Eastern Cape
• Vodacom Series: Gauteng
• Emfuleni Classic
• Ernie Els Invitational
• Observatory Classic
• Lombard Tyres Classic
• Royal Swazi Sun Open (which resumed in 2003)

There were seven tournaments added for this season:

• Goldfields Powerade Classic (played in 2001 only)
• Blomfontein Classic (first time played since 1995; not played after this season)
• Randfontein Classic (played in 2001 only)
• Atlantic Beach Classic (played in 2001 only)
• Graceland Challenge (played in 2001 only)
• Vodacom Trophy (played one more time, as the Vodacom Golf Classic in 2002)
• Royal Swazi Sun Classic (played 2001–04)

The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 17 of the 22 official tournaments being held in the country. One event each was held in Botswana, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe and two in Zambia. Two events, the Dunhill Championship and the South African Airways Open were co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

The Order of Merit was won by Tim Clark.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2001–02 Sunshine Tour. 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.

Prize funds shown did not count directly towards the Order of Merit. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of official money Sunshine Tour events he had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.

Year	Dates	Tournament	Venue (RSA unless stated)	Prize fund (R)	Winner	Notes	Ref
2001	8–11 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Lusaka Golf Club, Zambia	275,000	Mark Foster		[1]
2001	16–18 Mar	Cock of the North	Ndola Golf Club, Zambia	100,000	Sean Farrell	Last year of tournament	[2]
2001	29–31 Mar	FNB Botswana Open	Gaborone Golf Club, Botswana	125,000	Marc Cayeux (4)		[3]
2001	20–22 Apr	Royal Swazi Sun Classic	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	100,000	Titch Moore (2)	New tournament	[4]
2001	10–12 May	Pietersburg Industrelek Classic	Pietersburg Golf Club	100,000	Ryan Reid		[5]
2001	7–9 Sep	Goldfields Powerade Classic	Oppenheimer Park Golf Club	100,000	Callie Swart (2)	New tournament, only played in 2001	[6]
2001	11–13 Sep	Bloemfontein Classic	Schoeman Park Golf Club	100,000	André Cruse	New tournament, first time played since 1995	[7]
2001	26–28 Sep	Randfontein Classic	Randfontein Country Club	100,000	James Kingston (4)	New tournament, only played in 2001	[8]
2001	5–7 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Witbank Golf Club	100,000	Justin Hobday (6)		[9]
2001	10–12 Oct	Atlantic Beach Classic	Atlantic Beach Golf Club	100,000	James Kingston (5)	New tournament, only played in 2001	[10]
2001	18–20 Oct	Western Cape Classic	Rondebosch Golf Club	100,000	Lindani Ndwandwe (1)	Last year of tournament	[11]
2001	25–27 Oct	Vodacom Trophy	Zwartkop Country Club	100,000	Ulrich van den Berg (2)	New tournament	[12]
2001	8–10 Nov	Graceland Challenge	Graceland Country Club	100,000	Warren Abery (2)	New tournament, only played in 2001	[13]
2001	16–18 Nov	Platinum Classic	Mooi Nooi Golf Club	225,000	Roger Wessels (9)		[14]
2001	22–25 Nov	CABS/Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open	Chapman Golf Club, Zimbabwe	450,000	Darren Fichardt (3)	Last year of tournament until 2010	[15]
2001	7–9 Dec	Vodacom Players Championship	Royal Cape Golf Club	800,000	Ernie Els (12)		[16]
2002	10–13 Jan	Bell's South African Open Championship	Durban Country Club	4,250,000	Tim Clark (1)	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[17]
2002	17–20 Jan	Dunhill Championship	Houghton Golf Club	3,500,000	Justin Rose (1)	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[18]
2002	24–27 Jan	Telkom PGA Championship	Woodhill Country Club	475,000	Chris Williams (9)		[19]
2002	31 Jan – 3 Feb	Dimension Data Better Ball	Gary Player Country Club	110,000	André Cruse	Unofficial tournament	[20]
2002	31 Jan – 3 Feb	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Gary Player Country Club	1,250,000	Retief Goosen (4)		[21]
2002	7–10 Feb	Nashua Masters	Wild Coast Sun Country Club	500,000	Justin Rose (2)		[22]
2002	14–17 Feb	The Tour Championship	Leopard Creek Country Club	1,100,000	Nicholas Lawrence		[23]

Order of Merit

Rank	Player[24]	Country	Events	Prize money (R)
1	Tim Clark	South Africa	7	1,669,900.71
2	Justin Rose	England	4	1,476,005.60
3	Retief Goosen	South Africa	4	1,364,977.34
4	Martin Maritz	South Africa	8	1,042,806.00
5	James Kingston	South Africa	10	706,234.01

References

1. Stanbic Zambia Open results
2. Cock Of The North results
3. FNB Botswana Open results
4. Royal Swazi Sun Classic results
5. Pietersburg Industrelek Classic results
6. Goldfields Powerade Classic results
7. Bloemfontein Classic results
8. Randfontein Classic results
9. Bearing Man Highveld Classic results
10. Atlantic Beach Classic results
11. Western Cape Classic results
12. Vodacom Trophy results
13. Graceland Challenge results
14. Platinum Classic results
15. CABS/Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open results
16. Vodacom Players Championship results
17. Bell's South African Open Championship results
18. Dunhill Championship results
19. Telkom PGA Championship results
20. Dimension Data Better Ball results
21. Dimension Data Pro-Am results
22. Nashua Masters results
23. The Tour Championship results
24. "2001/2002 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 2002-02-17. Retrieved 2014-07-19.

External links

• Official website