Sunshine Ladies Tour grows with increased prize money and more opportunities

The Sunshine Ladies Tour will celebrate its 12th season as Africa’s premier women’s professional golf circuit with another strong schedule of local and international tournaments, increased prize money, and a reward for the champions to chase a R1 million payday.

In announcing its 2025 schedule on Wednesday, the Sunshine Ladies Tour unveiled a season of eight tournaments to be played from February to April.

The season will once again be anchored by the two co-sanctioned events with the Ladies European Tour (LET) – the Joburg Ladies Open at Modderfontein Golf Club and the Investec South African Women’s Open at Erinvale Golf Estate.

There will be increased prize money at two of the tournaments on the schedule, namely the Investec South African Women’s Open and the Standard Bank Ladies Open hosted by City of Cape Town.

There is also a new tournament on the schedule, the R1 million Platinum Ladies Open to be played at the Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate.

Apart from the overall crown of Investec Order of Merit champion, the winners of each of the tournaments as well as the Order of Merit champion will also qualify to play in the Sunshine Tour’s Waterfall City Tournament of Champions powered by Attacq, where they will compete with the men’s professionals for a first prize of R1 million at Royal Johannesburg Golf Club’s East Championship Course.

“We’re very excited about the 2025 schedule, which reflects the growth of women’s golf in our country. Our focus is to keep building the pathways that help our leading professionals grow their careers and which enables them to take their games onto the international stage. This coming season – with the valuable support of our sponsors and partners who share our vision – will be another major step towards achieving this goal,” said Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour and speaking on behalf of the Sunshine Ladies Tour.

The past season reflected how the growing opportunities in the local game are creating greater player depth here. On the final Investec Order of Merit, half of the top 10 were South African professionals, while the season also saw a breakthrough debut victory for Bloemfontein’s Gabrielle Venter.

The 2025 season will also build significantly on the already strong foundation between the Sunshine Ladies Tour and Sunshine Tour and the drive to create equal opportunities in the South African game.

This year seven professionals from the Sunshine Ladies Tour have competed in the Sunshine Tour’s Vodacom Origins of Golf series, playing alongside the men for the same prize money as well as a financial incentive for the best performing Sunshine Ladies Tour professional on the series, and an exemption to play in the Joburg Ladies Open as well as exemptions to compete in three tournaments on the Ladies European Tour’s Access Series. The Access Series is the LET’s official development tour based in Europe. The top six on the Order of Merit at the end of the season secure their playing privileges on the LET.