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When the Kingswood Golf Operations (KGO) team heard just five weeks before that they would be hosting the Sunshine Senior Tour on October 13 and 14, they all pitched in for the estate’s very first professional event.
Supported by Fidelity Security Services and George Tourism, big-name pro golfers on the course rubbed shoulders with colourfully-clad sponsor representatives — most notably Fidelity CEO Wahl Bartmann, who jetted in from Gauteng with a posse of executives to enjoy the action in what promised, in pre-tournament forecasts, to be perfect golfing weather.
The first day’s play on Wednesday delivered flawless weather indeed, with overcast conditions as the first competitors teed off and sunny, windless climes for the remainder of daylight hours.
By late morning Thursday, scattered drops started falling but by no means enough to dampen spirits of the pro golfers contending for podium positions.
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This pro-am edition of the SA Senior Tour (open to players aged 50 and older) was officially named the Senior Sunshine Tour Fidelity Kingswood Classic and welcomed roughly 90 amateur and 30 professional players to George for the occasion.
Some of the country’s golfing luminaries who had signed up by the closing date for entries on September 29 included Neil Cheetham, Neville Clarke, Nic Henning, André Cruse and Kenneth Dube, with George local Roger Wessels of KeNako Golf Academy fame, and KGO stalwart Mike Quin featuring in the pro field, too.
The podium
As is the Senior Tour norm, the team competition format at Kingswood was a four-ball alliance with two scores to count on each hole. The professionals played off a scratch handicap and their amateur partners off official club handicaps. Rules and regulations as set out for a 36-hole professional stroke-play event applied.
A team event ran concurrently, consisting of one professional and three amateur partners on October 13. On the 14th, the professionals competed without amateur team members.
Shortly before noon on Wednesday, The BUZZard asked Karl Voppichler of Southern Cape Golf Union if he would venture a guess as to which professional would walk away with the honours come Thursday. “Roger Wessels,” was Karl’s confident and immediate response.
Later, Roger had indeed raked in the gold (+1), followed by Neil Cheetham (+2), Nic Henning (+2), Mike Quin (+5) and Kenneth Dube (+6). Congrats to all involved, but perhaps especially to the KeNako and Kingswood representatives for flying the George flag high.
Kudos to KGO
Having been at the helm of Kingswood Golf Operations for the past four years, Liesel Niehaus was at her cool, collected best when chatting to The BUZZard in the run-up to the tournament.
“Although the event was only confirmed early September, it had been on the cards for Kingswood for a while and didn’t come as a complete surprise. Many of the participants had never played our course before, so the tour provided a great opportunity to showcase Kingswood and the town of George.”
She added that the Wednesday’s pro-am battles and Thursday’s professional playouts were sure to provide excellent sporting pleasure for spectators, an expected majority being Kingswood residents and friends. And, who knows, perhaps the lifestyle enjoyed by Kingswood locals appeals to such an extent that some of the SAST players can’t resist the lure of investing in the estate. At the very least, the tour’s extensive national and international exposure could well result in a marked increase in membership numbers.
Visit www.saseniortour.co.za for additional information.
A brief history of the Sunshine Tour
The Sunshine Tour – initially referred to as the South African Tour or Sunshine Circuit – has a rich history peppered with feats of fabulous sportsmanship and quirky anecdotes of on and off the course action.
The competition is a men’s professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa, but an overwhelming majority of its events are staged in South Africa. Through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the Vodacom and the FNB Tour. For the 2000/1 season, it was rebranded as the Sunshine Tour to broaden its appeal.
The event is one of the six leading men’s tours, which before 2009 made up membership of the International Federation of PGA Tours. If qualifying, Southern African golfers traditionally prefer to play the PGA or European Tour, then typically return to contend in Sunshine Tour events a couple of times a year.
Most of the tour’s leading official money events, including the South African Open, are co-sanctioned with the European Tour to attract stronger fields. The 2015 season included 27 official money events.
Co-sanctioned tournaments had purses ranging from €1-million to $6.5-million, while the other 21 events had purses ranging from R650,000 to R4.5-million. There was at least one tournament every month of the year except July, but the main events took place in the South African summer from November to February.
The tour has only been open to non-white players since 1991. Five black golfers have won events: South Africa’s John Mashego at the 1991 Bushveld Classic; SA’s Lindani Ndwandwe at 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 SA’s Toto Thimba Jr at the 2019 KCB Karen Masters.
The Sunshine Tour consists of two distinct parts, commonly referred to as the Summer Swing and Winter Swing.
Tournaments held during the former generally have much higher prize funds and attract stronger fields. The Winter Swing runs from March to November
