PROFILPELAJAR.COM

2017–18 Sunshine Tour season
Duration	20 April 2017 – 18 March 2018
Number of official events	26
Most wins	Oliver Bekker (3)
Order of Merit	George Coetzee
Players' Player of the Year	Oliver Bekker
Rookie of the Year	Neil O'Briain
	← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Sunshine Tour was the 47th season of the Sunshine Tour (formerly the Southern Africa Tour), the main professional golf tour in South Africa since it was formed in 1971.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2017–18 season.^[1]

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner^[a]	OWGR points	Other tours^[b]	Notes
23 Apr	Zimbabwe Open	Zimbabwe	1,800,000	J. C. Ritchie (1)	14
30 Apr	Zambia Sugar Open	Zambia	1,600,000	Oliver Bekker (5)	14
6 May	Investec Royal Swazi Open	Swaziland	1,200,000	Peter Karmis (4)	14
21 May	Lombard Insurance Classic	Swaziland	1,000,000	Oliver Bekker (6)	4
4 Jun	Mopani Redpath Zambia Open	Zambia	US$150,000	Riekus Nortje (1)	14
29 Jul	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Highland Gate	Mpumalanga	750,000	Doug McGuigan (7)	7
4 Aug	Sun City Challenge	North West	750,000	Peter Karmis (5)	7
11 Aug	Sun Carnival City Challenge	Gauteng	750,000	Jbe' Kruger (4)	4
19 Aug	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella	Western Cape	750,000	Keith Horne (9)	4
25 Aug	Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge	KwaZulu-Natal	750,000	Oliver Bekker (7)	4
2 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Zimbali	KwaZulu-Natal	750,000	Jared Harvey (1)	4
8 Sep	Sun Fish River Challenge	Eastern Cape	750,000	M. J. Viljoen (1)	4
15 Sep	Sun Boardwalk Challenge	Eastern Cape	750,000	Tyrone Ryan (1)	4
23 Sep	Vodacom Origins of Golf at St Francis	Eastern Cape	750,000	Doug McGuigan (8)	4
14 Oct	Vodacom Origins of Golf at Sishen	Northern Cape	750,000	Hennie du Plessis (1)	4
27 Oct	Sun Sibaya Challenge	KwaZulu-Natal	750,000	Alex Haindl (2)	4
4 Nov	Vodacom Origins of Golf Final	Western Cape	750,000	Jaco Prinsloo (1)	4
3 Dec	AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open	Mauritius	€1,000,000	Dylan Frittelli (1)	17	ASA, EUR
11 Dec	Joburg Open	Gauteng	16,500,000	Shubhankar Sharma (n/a)	17	ASA, EUR
14 Jan	BMW SA Open	Gauteng	15,000,000	Chris Paisley (n/a)	32	EUR	Flagship event
1 Feb	Eye of Africa PGA Championship	Gauteng	1,500,000	Matías Calderón (1)	14
18 Feb	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Western Cape	5,050,000	Jaco Ahlers (7)	14		Pro-Am
25 Feb	Cape Town Open	Western Cape	1,500,000	Rhys Enoch (1)	14
4 Mar	Tshwane Open	Gauteng	15,000,000	George Coetzee (9)	19	EUR
7 Mar	Steyn City Team Championship	Gauteng	1,000,000	Hennie du Plessis (2) and Jean Hugo (18)	n/a		New team event
18 Mar	The Tour Championship	Gauteng	1,500,000	Darren Fichardt (16)	14		Tour Championship

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.^[2]^[3]

Position	Player	Prize money (R)
1	George Coetzee	2,937,226
2	Erik van Rooyen	2,359,847
3	J. C. Ritchie	2,033,965
4	Oliver Bekker	1,562,989
5	Ockie Strydom	1,415,499

Awards

Award	Winner	Ref.
Players' Player of the Year	Oliver Bekker	^[3]
Rookie of the Year (Bobby Locke Trophy)	Neil O'Briain	^[4]^[5]

Notes

^ The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Sunshine Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.
^ ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.

References

^ "2017/18 Tournament schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
^ "2017/18 Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Coetzee, Bekker honoured at Tour awards". Compleat Golfer. 18 March 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2023. Coetzee walked away with the Order of Merit title thanks almost solely to his triumph at the Tshwane Open. The victory over the co-sanctioned field at Pretoria Country Club earned Coetzee R2,377,500 of the R2,937,225 he made this season; that cheque alone would've been enough to finish in first for the season... Bekker earned R1,562,988 this year (fourth on the Order of Merit) and won three times (Zambia Sugar Open; Lombard Insurance Classic; Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge) and left on Sunday with the Golf Writers Award and the Commissioner's Award as well as being named as the Player's Player to cap a successful year.
^ "2017/18 Rookie of the Year". Sunshine Tour. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
^ "Future is bright as O'Donovan wins Sunshine Tour card". Irish Golfer. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2022. Old Conna's Neil O'Briain was the last Irishman to compete regularly on the Tour when claiming the Bobby Locke Award for Rookie of the Year after the season ending Tour Championship in 2018.