14-579: The South African PGA Championship is one of the most prestigious golf tournaments on the Sunshine Tour . It has most recently been played in September, with a prize fund of R 2,000,000. It is currently held at St Francis Links in St Francis Bay . The current South African PGA Championship was founded in 1965, largely thanks to Gary Player and Brian Henning . The inaugural event
28-663: A points-based system, rather than being decided on money earned. Points earned are based on tournament prize money which are split into five tiers. The leader of the OoM will receive R 500,000; paid in Bitcoin . Since 2022, the top three players on the Order of Merit at the end of the season earn status to play on the European Tour for the following season. Madalitso Muthiya Madalitso Muthiya (born 8 February 1983)
42-549: Is a Zambian professional golfer . Muthiya took up golf at the age of six and at fifteen he caught the attention of Zambian president Frederick Chiluba , who asked an American, James Roth, to assist Muthiya in securing an athletic scholarship to a university. Roth arranged for Muthiya to play a junior tournament in the United States, the 1999 Nolan Henke/Patty Berg Junior Masters in Fort Myers, Florida. Muthiya won in
56-650: The Nationwide Tour in 2010 where his best finish was T-7 at the Mylan Classic . In July 2016, he won his first Sunshine Tour title in a Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour event, the first Zambian to win on the Sunshine Tour and only the fourth black African. CUT = missed the half-way cut Note: Muthiya only played in the U.S. Open. This biographical article relating to sport in Zambia
70-623: The South African Open , are co-sanctioned with the European Tour to attract stronger fields. The 2015 season included 27 official money events. The co-sanctioned events had purses ranging from € 1,000,000 to US$ 6,500,000, while the other 21 events had purses designated in South African Rand and ranging from 650,000 rand to 4.5 million rand. There was at least one tournament every month of the year except July, but
84-606: The 16- to 18-year-old age group. He went on to play college golf at the University of New Mexico In 2005, Muthiya turned professional. In 2006, he had many highlights. In March, he finished second at the Zambia Open . He joined the Canadian Tour later in the year. In the summer he also became the first Zambian and black African to play in the U.S. Open . He missed the cut at the 2006 U.S. Open . He played on
98-469: The 2001 Western Cape Classic and 2009 Highveld Classic ; Zimbabwe's Tongoona Charamba at the 2006 SAA Pro-Am Invitational and 2008 MTC Namibia PGA Championship ; Zambia's Madalitso Muthiya at the 2016 Vodacom Origins of Golf (Wild Coast); and South Africa's Toto Thimba Jr. at the 2019 KCB Karen Masters . In 2016, the Sunshine Tour announced an affiliation with the MENA Golf Tour , allowing
112-755: The PGA. Following the 1999 event, Dunhill decided to end their association with the South African PGA and create their own tournament, the Alfred Dunhill Championship , which also replaced the PGA Championship on the European calendar. As a result, there was no PGA Championship held in 2000, but the tournament returned to the Sunshine Tour the following year with a new sponsor. It is one of the richest sole-sanctioned events on
126-630: The Sunshine Tour. The South African PGA Championship, along with the South African Open and the South African Masters formed the Triple Crown of South African golf. Winning all three titles in the same season is a feat only achieved by Bobby Locke , Gary Player and Ernie Els . Sunshine Tour The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa . For much of its early history it
140-486: The main events took place in the South African summer from November to February. In accordance with the apartheid policy of the governments of Southern Africa, the tour was only open to White players for its first 20 years. The tour has been open to non-White players since 1991. Five black golfers have won events: South Africa's John Mashego at the 1991 Bushveld Classic; South Africa's Lindani Ndwandwe at
154-538: The membership of the International Federation of PGA Tours , but it offers much less prize money than some of the leading tours, and leading Southern African golfers traditionally prefer to play on the PGA Tour or the European Tour if they can qualify to do so, typically returning to play in Sunshine Tour events a couple of times a year. Most of the tour's leading official money events, including
SECTION 10
#1732783295030168-402: The top five MENA Tour players Sunshine Tour cards and those 6th-15th into the final stage of Q School. A number of events would also be co-sanctioned among the Sunshine Tour, MENA Tour, and developmental Big Easy Tour . In May 2022, it was announced that the Order of Merit would be reformatted for the 2022–23 season . It was sponsored by Luno, a cryptocurrency platform. The rankings changed to
182-525: Was held in February 1965 and was won by Harold Henning who beat Player by 3 strokes. New sponsors in 1972 gave the championship a home at The Wanderers Golf Club where it remained until 1995, when it became the first tournament in South Africa to be co-sanctioned by the European Tour . The following year Alfred Dunhill took over from Lexington as title sponsors, breaking a 23-year association with
196-606: Was known either as the Southern Africa Tour or Sunshine Circuit ; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the FNB Tour and the Vodacom Tour . For the 2000–01 season the tour rebranded itself as the Sunshine Tour in an attempt to broaden its appeal. A large majority of the tour events are still staged in South Africa. The tour is one of the six leading men's tours which before 2009 made up
#29970