Zimbabwe Open fifth richest African tournament

HARARE-The Zimbabwe Open Golf tournament is set to become Africa’s fifth richest tournament with a winning of purse of R1 million (US$250 000), when it makes its return in April after a nine-year absence due to the economic meltdown. The tournament is set to be officially relaunched at the home course – Royal Harare Golf Club adjacent on Thursday night.

A number of financial institutions are bankrolling the golf tournament which is set to become the fifth richest tournament on the Sunshine Tour but will not ecplise tournaments like the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Africa Open and Johannesburg Open.
The 2010 Zimbabwe Open Tournament will be held at Royal Harare Golf Club during the week commencing Sunday 18 April through to the final day of the tournament on Saturday 24 April 2010. The relevant pre- qualifying games and the traditional pro-am tournaments will be held during this period culminating in the final professional tournament during the last four days of the week.

The Zimbabwe Golf Association (ZGA), in consultation with the relevant stakeholders including the Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association (ZPGA), invited various business leaders and sports personalities to form a Committee with a mandate to run the Zimbabwe Open Golf Tournament in an efficient and transparent manner that promotes sports business and goodwill amongst all stakeholders.

The Zimbabwe Open has been readmitted into the Sunshine Tour after making a commitments that it will have a winning cash purse of R1 million.
The Zimbabwe Open is a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It was first played in 1984 and was part of what was known as the Safari Tour, a collection of events in Africa that were played by professionals based on the European Tour during their winter. As a result, it became an event on the European based Challenge tour in 1991, where it remained for two seasons before moving onto the FNB Summer Tour, which became the Southern Africa Tour and later the Sunshine Tour.
Past winners include major winners Vijay Singh and Nick Price, who along with Mark McNulty is most successful player at the event, both men having recorded three victories.