2004–05 Sunshine Tour

2004–05 Sunshine Tour season
Duration11 March 2004 (2004-03-11) – 27 February 2005 (2005-02-27)
Number of official events22
Most wins Thomas Aiken (3)
Order of Merit Charl Schwartzel
Rookie of the Year Garry Houston

The 2004–05 Sunshine Tour was the 34th 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 2004–05 season.

Date Tournament Location Purse
(R) 		Winner OWGR
points 		Other
tours 		Notes
14 Mar Stanbic Zambia Open Zambia €110,000 Michael Kirk (1) 10 CHA
27 Mar FNB Botswana Open Botswana 250,000 Barry Painting (1) n/a
2 Apr Parmalat Classic Eastern Cape 200,000 Justin Walters (1) n/a
8 May Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open Swaziland 400,000 Nic Henning (3) n/a
29 May Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pezula Western Cape 300,000 Patrick O'Brien (1) n/a New tournament series
12 Jun Vodacom Origins of Golf at Schoeman Park North West 300,000 Steve van Vuuren (6) n/a
20 Jun Royal Swazi Sun Classic Swaziland 250,000 Bradford Vaughan (4) n/a
2 Jul Vodacom Origins of Golf at Zimbali KwaZulu-Natal 300,000 Thomas Aiken (1) n/a
23 Jul Vodacom Origins of Golf at Sun City North West 300,000 Thomas Aiken (2) n/a
19 Sep Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella Western Cape 300,000 Louis Oosthuizen (1) n/a
10 Oct Bearing Man Highveld Classic Mpumalanga 250,000 Divan van den Heever (1) n/a
16 Oct Limpopo Eskom Classic Limpopo 500,000 Bradford Vaughan (5) n/a
21 Oct Vodacom Origins of Golf Final Western Cape 300,000 Thomas Aiken (3) n/a
30 Oct Platinum Classic North West 550,000 Titch Moore (5) n/a
6 Nov MTC Namibia PGA Championship Namibia 500,000 Mark Murless (2) n/a New tournament
13 Nov Seekers Travel Pro-Am Gauteng 230,000 Ulrich van den Berg (3) n/a
12 Dec Dunhill Championship Mpumalanga £500,000 Charl Schwartzel (1) 18 EUR
23 Jan South African Airways Open KwaZulu-Natal £500,000 Tim Clark (2) 32 EUR Flagship event
30 Jan Dimension Data Pro-Am North West 1,000,000 Simon Wakefield (1) 12 Pro-Am
6 Feb Nashua Masters Eastern Cape 1,000,000 Richard Sterne (1) 12
20 Feb Telkom PGA Championship Gauteng 1,750,000 Warren Abery (3) 12
27 Feb Vodacom Tour Championship Gauteng 2,000,000 Marc Cayeux (7) 12 Tour Championship

Order of Merit

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

Position Player Prize money (R)
1 Charl Schwartzel 1,635,850
2 Neil Cheetham 732,963
3 Warren Abery 704,837
4 Titch Moore 490,268
5 Marc Cayeux 430,676

Awards

Award Winner Ref.
Rookie of the Year (Bobby Locke Trophy) Garry Houston

Notes

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ CHA − Challenge Tour; EUR − European Tour.

References

  1. ^ "2004/05 Tournament schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  2. ^ "2004/05 Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  3. ^ Winter, Grant (23 February 2005). "'Schwartzel is best young, player in world'". Independent Online. Retrieved 9 September 2023. He has won the 2004-05 Sunshine Tour order of merit by the proverbial mile.
  4. ^ South African Golfers Yearbook. Picasso Headline. 2002. p. 9. Retrieved 8 November 2023 – via Google Books. Rookie of the Year honours went to veteran Welshman Garry Houston, playing the tour for the first time. He finished 37th on the Order of Merit and just edged out 18-year-old Anton Haig (39th) by R3,300 for the award.