The Zimbabwe Open is a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tournament held in Zimbabwe, currently played on the

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 was known either as the Southern Africa Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the F ...

History

The tournament debuted in 1984 and was part of the

Safari circuit The Safari Circuit, or Safari Tour, was a small professional golf tour based in West and East Africa that ran from the 1970s through into the 1990s. From 1977, the tour was organised by the PGA European Tour and from 1991 the tournaments were incl ...

from 1985 to 1992, a series of events in Africa played by professionals from the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

during the winter season. In 1991 and 1992, the event was also part of the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

. From 1993, it moved onto the First National Bank Tour, later renamed the

. When it was held in the weeks preceding the

Nedbank Golf Challenge The Nedbank Golf Challenge, previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge, is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, North West province, South Africa. It was first played in 1981 a ...

, the tournament attracted some of the world's leading players who used it as a warm up to the big money invitational. Past winners include

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

winners

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( ; born 22 February 1963) is a Fijians, Fijian professional golfer. In 1982, Singh turned professional and played on the local Asia Golf Circuit. However, his early career met with controversy, as he was accused of numerous rules ...

and

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean former professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-1 ...

with

Mark McNulty Mark William McNulty (born 24 March 1953) is a Zimbabwean-Irish professional golfer. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and featured in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking f ...

also achieving three victories, making him one of the most successful players in the event. Past winner

Gordon J. Brand Gordon John Brand (6 August 1955 – 11 August 2020) was an English professional golfer. Career Brand turned professional in 1976 and enjoyed full playing privileges on the European Tour for 20 years. During his time on tour, he finished insid ...

represented the Ryder Cup. Due to economic instability in Zimbabwe, the tournament lost sponsors and was cancelled prior to the 2002 event. There were many attempts to resurrect the tournament, but none were successful until 2010. The 2019 edition was also cancelled because of a lack of sponsors caused by a weak economy. Having not been played in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the tournament returned in 2022, sponsored by

FBC Bank FBC Bank, whose full name is FBC Bank Limited, is a commercial bank in Zimbabwe. It is licensed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the central bank and national banking regulator. Location The main branch and headquarters of the bank are located ...

. It had been anticipated that the event would be added to the

2023 European Tour The 2023 European Tour, titled as the 2023 DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, was the 52nd season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972. It was the second season of the tour under ...

schedule. However, this never came to fruition, mainly due to changes in the venue qualifying criteria set by the European Tour. It was anticipated that the tournament would become a European Tour event in 2024 instead. Again, this never came to fruition.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Coverage on the Sunshine Tour's official site
{{Sunshine Tour Events Safari Circuit events Sunshine Tour events Former Challenge Tour events Golf tournaments in Zimbabwe Sport in Harare Spring (season) in Zimbabwe Recurring sporting events established in 1984 1984 establishments in Zimbabwe

History

Winners

See also

Notes

References

External links