Swinging Fast

South African Justin Harding made almost a million dollars in the first four months of 2019. A sport often viewed as elitist and expensive is opening up across the continent offering greater access for players.

- Nick Said

SOUTH AFRICA’S SUNSHINE Tour is looking to expand its number of tournaments throughout the continent to build on the growing popularity of the game in Africa, as it continues to go from strength-to-strength despite challenges facing a sport often viewed as elitist and too expensive to play.

The tour already hosts two events each in Swaziland and Zambia, and one in Zimbabwe and Kenya, but is looking much further afield as it seeks to become a truly pan-African series of tournaments.

“The African leg of the Sunshine Tour is potentially very lucrative,” Selwyn Nathan, Sunshine Tour Commissioner, tells FORBES AFRICA.

“We are hoping to expand our tour to 10-12 events over the next year or two and we see it as a real area of growth. We are talking to countries like Nigeria and the other SADC [Southern African Development Community] states, and we will grow it for sure.

“There are so many tours opening up in Africa as the game grows in popularity and there is greater access for players. It is very exciting.”

The European Tour has long seen the potential of staging tournaments on the African continent and this year will co-sanction three in South Africa. But they also helped to host the Kenya Open for the first time in Nairobi, the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco and the Mauritius Open, with a West African event their obvious next step.

Nathan says the Sunshine Tour is in “good shape” for now and providing an excellent platform for South African golfers, as well as those from neighboring states, to go on and compete in the larger events in the United States and Europe.