2002–03 Sunshine Tour

The 2002–03 Sunshine Tour was the third 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 15 official events on the schedule. This was an decrease of eight from the previous year, and represents the fewest in the 15 seasons that Sunshine Tour has existed. There were eight tournaments from the previous season that were eliminated: the Goldfields Powerade Classic, the Bloemfontein Classic, the Randfontein Classic, the Atlantic Beach Classic, the Western Cape Classic, the Graceland Challenge, Cock of the North (Zambia), and the CABS/Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open (which resumed in 2010). One new tournament was added: the Royal Swazi Sun Classic. The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 11 of the 15 official tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, and one event each was held in Botswana and 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 Trevor Immelman.

Schedule

The table below shows schedule of events for the 2002–03 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
2002	21–24 Feb	Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	275,000	Andrew McLardy (3)		[1]
2002	7–10 Mar	Stanbic Zambia Open	Lusaka Golf Club, Zambia	450,000	Marc Cayeux (5)	Co-sanctioned with Challenge Tour	[2]
2002	21–23 Mar	FNB Botswana Open	Gaborone Golf Club, Botswana	200,000	Hendrik Buhrmann (6)		[3]
2002	9–11 May	Limpopo Industrelek Classic	Pietersburg Golf Club	125,000	Hennie Otto (3)		[4]
2002	17–19 May	Royal Swazi Sun Classic	Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Swaziland	100,000	James Kingston (7)	Returning tournament after one year hiatus	[5]
2002	26–28 Sep	Vodacom Golf Classic	Royal JHB & Kensington G.C	125,000	Ashley Roestoff (10)	Last year of tournament	[6]
2002	4–6 Oct	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Witbank Golf Club	125,000	Titch Moore (3)		[7]
2002	1–3 Nov	Platinum Classic	Mooi Nooi Golf Club	300,000	Titch Moore (4)		[8]
2002	14–17 Nov	Telkom PGA Championship	Woodhill Country Club	650,000	Michiel Bothma (1)		[9]
2002	21–24 Nov	Nashua Masters	Wild Coast Sun Country Club	500,000	Hennie Otto (4)		[10]
2002	5–8 Dec	Vodacom Players Championship	Royal Cape Golf Club	1,000,000	Mark McNulty (33)	Last year of tournament	[11]
2003	9–12 Jan	South African Airways Open	Erinvale Golf Club	3,000,000	Trevor Immelman (2)	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[12]
2003	16–19 Jan	Dunhill Championship	Houghton Golf Club	2,500,000	Mark Foster	Co-sanctioned with European Tour	[13]
2003	23–26 Jan	Dimension Data Better-Ball	Gary Player Country Club	100,000	Hennie Otto	Unofficial tournament Last year of tournament	[14]
2003	23–26 Jan	Dimension Data Pro-Am	Gary Player Country Club	1,000,000	Trevor Immelman (3)		[15]
2003	30 Jan – 2 Feb	The Tour Championship	Leopard Creek Country Club	1,200,000	Hennie Otto (5)		[16]

Order of Merit

Rank	Player[17]	Country	Events	Prize money (R)
1	Trevor Immelman	South Africa	4	2,044,279.45
2	Mark Foster	England	4	1,110,935.00
3	Hennie Otto	South Africa	10	877,118.15
4	Bradford Vaughan	South Africa	13	854,746.01
5	Mark McNulty	Zimbabwe	7	580,960.42

References

External links

• Official website